Three Ghost Hunters and a Baby
by VeilsofSleep
Summary: "Naru, why are you holding a child?" Various scenarios ran through Mai's head involving Masako Hara and moonlit hotel rooms with alcohol and a bed of rose petals. A blush of anger quickly spread across Mai's face. "The child is Lin's."
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: so I've only ever seen the anime, which what this will sort of follow. I'm going try add elements of the light novels, but I've only ever ready the descriptions on wiki. Anyway, this was an idea that floated into my mind a while ago. Let's see I can articulate it properly. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: If I owned, the anime would not have ended so quickly.  
**

****Three Ghost Hunters and a Baby:

chapter 1:

Now this was an image that Mai never imagined he'd see.

"Mai, she's staring at me."

Her tough and almost emotionless boss, Shibuya Kazuya, or Naru the narcissist if you like, holding a small child at arm's length. He was inspecting it like one would a particularly vexing piece of evidence. To give the child credit, she stared back at him with one of the most intense glares he had ever witnessed. The family resemblance was uncanny. The scene was altogether too bizarre for Mai who had just stridden into the office to see this frighteningly humorous thing. So much for an ordinary day at the office.

...

"Naru, why are you holding a _child_?"

Various scenarios ran through Mai's head involving Masako Hara and moonlit hotel rooms with alcohol. A blush of anger quickly spread across Mai's face.

"The child is _Lin's_." The words confounded more then they explained, but assuaged some of Mai's less happy thoughts.

"LIN?" Mai exclaimed staring at Naru and the child incredulously. The supposedly asexual third official member of Shibuya Psychic Research had a child. There had never been any indication that Lin even looked at women, let alone procreated and had children with them. It was just too bizarre, almost as bizarre as Naru somehow ending up with babysitting duties.

"Mai, here."

Unceremoniously, the child was plopped in Mai's arms. It seemed the child repelling Naru had his fill of the toddler for now.

"Wait!" Mai clasped the girl and chased after Naru who was quickly escaping to his office, "Where is Lin? Who is this kid? Where is her mother? What am I supposed to do with her?"

With a sigh, Naru stopped at the door to his office. Relief was so close yet so far.

"Lin is out appropriating supplies. The child's name is Saya and her mother died last week of terminal cancer," Naru explained, enunciating clearly for Mai's benefit, which she noticed and was thoroughly annoyed by, "Saya is toilet trained and was recently fed. You should be fine for a while." Without another word, Naru strode into office, leaving Mai staring at the closed door for a second.

_Hang on a second._

_Did that mean Naru..._

A chuckle escaped Mai's throat as she went back over the couches nearby. The idea of Naru preparing food and feeding Saya or helping her to the bathroom for that matter was just laughable and Mai suddenly found herself regretting not coming into work earlier. Still chortling, she sat the little girl down on the couch and surveyed her for the first time. The only features that resembled Lin at all were her eyes, both the shape and color and her slender fingers. Other than that, her chestnut hair and round face reminded Mai of her own mother, wise and calm.

"My name is Mai," with a smile, Mai settled on the couch next to hers. She would guess that this girl was about three, and could maybe even talk, "What's yours?"

"Sigh-ya," she carefully enunciated pointing a clasped fist at herself. The name was formed carefully and with great concentration, a face that mimicked Lin's surprisingly enough, "Where's Mama?"

_Uh-oh._

Now Mai wasn't sure what Saya had been told about her mother, or in fact how much Lin wanted her to know about the death, but Mai did understand what the emotional implications the death of a parent had on a child. Feeling an upsurge of sadness for the loss of her own parents, and empathy, Mai carefully collected the child. She had to say something.

"Your mom...well, I think we should wait for your dad to tell you, but don't worry Saya, you'll be okay," Mai explained in soothing words, "No matter what happens you still have Lin."

Of course, Lin had almost as much experience with children as Naru, and an even shorter amount of patience for them. The front door to their office opening drew both girls' attention. Glancing up, they spotted Lin entering with a large number of bags precariously balanced in his arms. A few items were sticking out of the paper, including several items of clothing, a few toys and some food. Looking weary like she'd never seen him, Lin set the bags on the nearest counter and turned to Mai and Saya.

"I take it Naru's given up already." There was no surprise in his tone, "Well, thank you for watching her, Mai."

"It's not problem Lin," Mai watched curiously as he started pulling items out of the bags.

First he pulled out a few sippy cups and some baby-friendly food. These were stored in cupboards and the fridge. Next came the toys. It was a mix of a few dolls, and a few cars and robot toys. No doubt Lin had haphazardly grabbed whatever he could. The rest seemed to be baby proofing equipment.

"Look Saya, Lin brought you toys!" Mai helped Saya off the couch and led her to the counter. Watching carefully, both she and Lin observed as Saya headed for, surprisingly enough, the cars. They were just small dinky cars, but she immediately clasped them in her fist and smiled widely. Strange, Mai definitely remembered have a doll collection as a child, along with several teddies but no cars, "Well that's interesting."

Lin rubbed her forehead, like he was still processing what was going on.

"If you don't mind me asking, what's going on Lin?"

He seemed to understand what she asking without directly hearing the question.

"Her mother was a remarkable woman who died in an unremarkable way," Lin explained, his eyes unreadable, "Unfortunately without any other living relatives, Saya falls to me."

_Unfortunately._

"Lin, you're her dad," Mai explained sounding a little upset. What she didn't understand was why that word crossed Lin's lips. Here Lin had the chance to provide his child with something she would have otherwise lost entirely. Mai lost the same thing, but Mai was also lucky to find a new family. In the same way, Saya was lucky to have someone left in the world, but Lin saw it as a burden... "You're her _only_ family."

"Mai, you should know that our work, my lifestyle is not suited to children," Lin explained with the fact based logic of the eternally academic and cynical. It was like those words were a justification for the walls that both Lin and Naru tended to build around themselves that inflamed Mai even more.

"Yeah well tough! make it work!" Mai retorted sharply, jutting her chin out defiantly, "She's your kid, and you're her dad. Hire a nanny or something if you're so concerned."

That simple irrefutable and completely illogical attitude was something Lin had come to expect from Mai and he merely sighed for seemed like the thousandth time. He surveyed his daughter again; she was sitting quietly on the rug, rolling a bright yellow muscle car back and forth against the wool with a satisfied smile on her face. She didn't understand what was going on, nor did Lin expect her to. With another quick sigh, Lin looked at his watch. According to the baby book, through which he was only half way, it was about time for an afternoon nap. Unceremoniously he lifted Saya off the floor and led her away to his office. Mai's words were still ringing his ears as he set Saya down on the small couch and placed a blanket over her.

"It's time to sleep now," he informed her carefully and clearly.

She blinked. He blinked.

"Car?" she held it out to him almost like a peace offering and Lin resisted sighing. This was not getting them anywhere.

"Sleep." He took the car from her fingers and placed beside her, "Sleep."

He placed a hand on her forehead, finding the action more natural then holding her and gently rubbed her head. Letting out a deep breath, Saya wearily blinked. Apparently Lin had been right about one thing, she was tired. Forcing her eyes open, Saya repressed a yawn and reached for her car again, which Lin allowed her to have and she held it to her chest, the yellow standing garishly against the green of her dress. After a few minutes, her eyes drooped a little more and her breathing became lower. After nearly twenty minutes, Saya was fully asleep and resisting a wince, Lin straightening up from where he had been hunched over. With that first hurdle crossed, he collapsed onto his office chair and started typing, hoping for a measure of catharsis.

In the space of the two hours where Saya was asleep, Lin managed to keep up with all the paperwork and reports. It remarkable how much a child could derail a day. If Lin had to guess, he would say his productivity had taken a sharp downturn in the course of the day. A nanny was imperative.

Opening Google, he did a quick search of nannies around the area. The list was essentially two groups. Either teenagers with no references, no education and what looked to be next to no experience what so ever, or middle aged women who had a large pile of references and experience but looked mostly like they would frighten children. Neither group seemed adequate (Lin ignored the fact that he scared children as well). An ordinary person would not serve well as a nanny for Saya. Even at this young age, he was sure she must have had some sort of latent power, both he and her mother were extremely gifted so it followed that she would be too. What he needed was a nanny with a background in the paranormal and supernatural.

It was late afternoon when some life finally entered the otherwise quiet office in the form of Father John Brown and Ayako Matsuzaki. At the particular moment, Mai had been balancing a giggling Saya up in the air and twirling like a helicopter, complete with sound effects. As expected, the child shrieked with laughter. The sight earned a few very strange looks from both John and Ayako. The sight of a child, a _happy_ child, within the walls of the Shibuya Physic Research was nothing short of signaling the apocalypse.

"Um...Mai, do you have a case?" John probed for an explanation, his accent ringing in their ears quietly. With a small smirk, Mai settled the child on the ground, where she preceded to grab a few cars and start racing them.

"Nope." The smirk got more pronounced, "You guys aren't going to believe this-"

"Mai, according to the book, it's time for the girl's dinner," Lin stopped in front of his office door and held back a mental groan. Now there would be more people to witness this spectacle, people who he did not particularly care for either. Both spiritualists looked from the child to Lin and then back to the child. It wasn't particularly hard to put one and one together.

"Oh my..." John had the decency to keep his face blank for the most part, with amusement sparkling only in his eyes.

"A daughter?" Ayako was snickering in a far more obvious way and looked ready to burst into peals of laughter any second, "No way!" The snickering grew more pronounced.

"This is Saya Koujo," Mai bit the inside of her mouth to keep from laughing as the expression on Lin's face got surlier. After having hidden for the better part of the day, Naru finally emerged from his office, and first sent glares at John and Ayako before settling his gaze on the child over which this commotion was occurring. Like before, Saya glared right back, her eyes not wavering for a second in fear or nervousness.

"We have a case, I was just about to call you." Naru finally broke the kid's gaze and turned to face the rest of them, "Even though you're obnoxious your still right on time."

Once everyone was settled with a cup of tea and some snacks, Naru started explaining.

"There's a case in Ikebukuro," Naru was looking thoughtfully at his tea cup. He wasn't positive about this case, there were just too many factors he didn't understand right away and that bothered him. Regardless, it interested him enough that he was willing to take the case; "It seems the seventh floor of an apartment complex is being plagued, literally. Every night from between 2 and 3 some sort of odd happening will occur."

"Like what?" Ayako asked.

"Last night, some of the children got severely ill and did not get better until they were removed from the seventh floor," Naru explained thoughtfully as Lin set Saya up with some sort of baby friendly gruel for dinner, "The strange phenomena all started ten days ago, with no apparent cause."

There had been no sudden death on the seventh floor or in the vicinity of the building, there were no scorned neighbors. It was just far too random to be nothing, but a distinct pattern hadn't quite shown itself yet either. It was quite perplexing.

"I'll call Monk," Mai stood up and then grudgingly added, "And Masako too."

* * *

As usual Mai woke up somewhat disoriented. The world seemed a little bit distorted and itntook Mai only a second to guess exactly what was going on. She was no longer in her own home, but instead standing in the middle of the office, and it seemed to be late sunset outside, both odd considering it was actually probably the middle of the night and she was tucked away in her own bed. Right own cue, Naru strode over to her with a small happy smile on his face.

"What's going on?" Mai asked, considerably confused. Only in times of trouble did this 'dream Naru' ever really show himself. Unless the office was haunted by something, she doubted that he would have contacted her at all.

"Mai!" a small voice drew her attention and suddenly standing next to her was Saya, dressed in what appeared to be a onesy with ducks on it. Most adorable, but it didn't quite distract Mai from the fact that Lin's barely three year old child was somehow in her mystical dream. With quick panic, Mai lifted the girl up.

"Is she in danger? What's happening?" Mai asked quickly, looking around for some sort of threat.

"It's nothing like that, I just met someone who wishes to say their goodbyes," Naru explained good naturedly looking apologetic for working Mai up for no reason. He stood aside and a small, but incredibly beautiful woman was revealed. She was the type who would no doubt age like a graceful queen, if her wide, wise eyes and soft frame were anything to go by.

"My dear girl!" the woman let out what was a cross between a sob and a small cry of relief, and her arm's automatically reached out for Saya who let out a grateful squeal. With tears gathering in the corners of her eyes, the woman hugged Saya close, swaying a little bit, "I'm so sorry."

"Mama!" Saya dug fists into the woman's sweater and buried her face in her hair.

"T-this is Saya's mom?" Mai looked between them and 'dream Naru'.

"Yes, she just needed to say her goodbyes before she could properly pass on," Naru explained with a touch of gentleness to his voice that Mai had never seen before; he seemed almost sad but Mai couldn't think of a reason why.

In some ways the reunion made Mai a little sad too. She never got a chance to say goodbye properly to her mother or her father. Admittedly she had been too small to properly understand death when her dad passed, but regret always plagued her about her mother's death. This was a chance she would have given almost anything for. Then again, when the woman hesitantly handed Saya back to Mai, the pain on both their faces made Mai wonder if it was worth it to relive the pain of a goodbye. It looked like their hearts were breaking due to the separation.

"Please help Lin," the woman begged with her head bent as she faded away.

"Of course, Ma'am, of course!" Mai quickly assuaged her as Saya started to wiggle, eager to get back into her mother's arms.

"Mama!" she cried reaching with tiny arms for a mother that would never come, "Mama back!"

"Shh, Saya, it's alright, it's going to be fine," Mai tried to sway her, but once the last of her mother disappeared, Saya started wailing with thick tears streaming down her cheeks. With a look of deep regret etched on his own face, it was clear Naru was wondering if this good bye would leave Saya more wounded then healed.

Just like it started the dream ended and Mai opened her eyes to find herself sleeping her own bed once again, only this time Saya's cries were ringing in her ears.

* * *

Saya's red rimmed eyes were enough to tell Mai that her dream wasn't just a dream. Looking tired and incredibly sad, the little girl clung to father's hand like it was a life line. For his part, Lin looked only a touch more annoyed than usual, but Mai had to assume that he probably lost his temper at some point. He could barely handle dealing with Mai when she had been possessed by the spirit of that young boy, and it was doubtful that he could handle an actual child. No doubt Saya had woken in the middle of the night crying like she had been in Mai's dream. In that state, Mai doubted that Lin would have able to calm her down and now it seemed they were witnessing the remnants of what had happened.

"I'm guessing someone threw a temper tantrum," John commented quietly as they approached.

"Lin or the kid?" Monk as surveying their uncannily similar surly expression. All he had thus far was a second hand account of the child from everyone else, but even he had to admit that the girl had a glare like he had never seen. Upon spotting Naru, she dropped her father's hand and ran to him first, surprising everyone. Children often ran _from_ Naru, not towards him.

"Mama," she demanded in a 'I'm a kitty pretending to be a tiger' voice.

"You mother is not here," Naru informed her crisply, looking down at the girl critically.

"Bring Mama." The command was clear in her voice.

"I can't." Naru's voice became sharper, to the point of rude, "No one can."

"B-But-" the girl sputtered incoherently, tears filling her eyes again, "Mama! Want Mama!" She collapsed onto the ground in both exhaustion and grief and curled up into ball, still sobbing pitifully. For a second no one moved.

"Come on Saya, get up," Lin bent down next to her and tried to coax Saya to her feet again, but the child refused to move or listen, she just curled into herself tighter. It clenched at Mai's heart a little bit because she knew that grief so well, "Saya, now is not the time."

"We need to get the truck loaded." It was Naru's way of suggesting that Lin solve this situation quickly. The cries only got louder.

"You two aren't helping!" Mai burst, pushing past both Lin and Naru. As gently as she could manage, Mai lifted Saya off the hard cement and held her against her side. Almost instinctively, Saya loosened up and curled into Mai, hiding her face away in Mai's sweater. The cries were muffled now and both Lin and Naru walked away without further comment. As far as they were concerned, the situation was taken care of by more capable hands. It seemed Lin still had a lot to learn about being a father.

"Poor child," Masako commented.

"That was...rough," Monk commented slowly approaching Mai, "So this is Saya."

"Yeah," Mai glanced back at the entrance to their office, she was supposed to be helping them. "Can you hold Saya well I get the truck loaded?"

"Only if Saya's okay with it," being the every friendly Takigawa he was, Monk put on his most charming smile and looked at Saya, "I was thinking we could get a some crème puffs from the bakery down the street." When all else failed, Monk found that bribes of a desert related nature always convinced people to do as he wished. With a small hiccup, Saya peeked at him over Mai's shoulder and hesitantly relinquished her grip Mai's sweater and let Monk carry her.

"We can all go," John suggested looking to Saya who nodded after a second.

With a sigh, Mai watched as Monk, John, Ayako and Masako all crossed the street with Saya in tow. A frown appeared on her face as she entered the office and grabbed a few cases of cameras. Both Naru and Lin looked completely unaffected.

"That was a disaster." Mai's comment was ignored, "You two really sucked back there. I mean really _sucked_."

Once again, neither looked up from what they were doing.

"You should know I had a dream last night."

That got their attention.

"About our case?" Naru asked, for once giving Mai his undivided attention.

"No, Saya's mom was in it and so was Saya," Mai was curt, she was never curt with them. Angry and loud on a daily basis, Mai was never passive aggressive, "she said goodbye to Saya and then disappeared. It probably explains why Saya is upset this morning." With a glare at both of them, Mai headed out the door with her chin up in the air.

Though Naru looked mostly unrepentant, Lin looked slightly concerned as Mai walked out.

The drive out to the apartment complex was very quiet. Monk, Ayako, John and Masako were taking Ayako's car, which left Mai, Lin, Naru and Saya in the truck. Settled comfortably next to each other, both the girls' spent most of the drive pointedly ignoring the boys and spoke only quietly to each other. Their silence was very much noted. Usually, though Lin spoke little, Mai always made some sort of conversation. The empty silence was oddly uncomfortable. Now Naru didn't like children, but he was considering a truce if only to return them all to a pre-Saya symbiosis.

"Saya are you hungry?" Mai asked quietly, rifling through her bag for those crème puffs Monk handed her before they left Shibuya. With some success, she managed to find the box and was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't just crème puffs that Monk bought, but what seemed to be every pastry, desert and tart the bakery contained. All of them were still warm, "Wow!"

With a small pudgy hand, Saya reached out and picked up a lemon tart and held it in her palms. There was a sort of reverence in her eyes.

"Do you like lemon tarts?" Mai asked curiously.

"They were her mother's favorite," Lin's voice was so quiet that Mai almost missed it. His eyes didn't even move from the road, but the emotion in his voice was clear. One of the last memories he had of her was bringing a large box of the most expensive lemon tarts to the hospital. She had simply smiled widely at him; by that point she was sick enough that she barely managed to each half of one, but seemed to enjoy ever bite. Lin couldn't remember what happened to the rest of the box, "And Saya's too."

With a swallow of her pastry (a chocolate tart), Mai wondered if she was being a little harsh on the boys. Her small amount of guilt was quickly quashed by what Naru said next.

"According to Miss Matsuzaki to many pastries lead to obesity," he commented, "And Miss Hara stated that too much sugar was unhealthy."

_Miss Hara. Well screw her!_

"Well all the more for me, jerk!" she growled and took a decidedly large bite of her tart and chewed vigorously. It seemed Masako was a particularly sore point with Mai. With his lips curling upwards slightly, Naru decided that grabbing a pastry for himself would probably end with Mai attacking him. Instead, he let a condescending air take over his demeanor and looked amused despite his completely straight face.

"Ob-Obcity?" Saya asked trying to enunciate as best she could.

"When someone is overweight to the point of unhealthiness," Naru explained.

A blank look later:

"It's something you don't need to worry about, Saya," Mai replied and the look of concentration eased off a thankful Saya.

Whatever Ob-city was, she didn't want it.

* * *

The building looked very normal. It had beige trim and a few flower bushes outside. Nothing that screamed of a haunting or poltergeist. But then again most places didn't. Even as they toured the building it occurred to Mai that a strange aura was hanging around it. Like an oppressive heavy fog, and the longer she paced those hallways, the heavier it seemed to feel. There was no indication that the others felt any of this, to the contrary, Monk was joking lightly with Father Brown at the back of the group while the building manager led them through.

"There are a total of fifteen families living on the seventh floor of this complex," Mr Ita, a slightly balding man explained to them. The names of all the families were on each door and fear seemed to be tangible in the air. Ita wiped his brow with a handkerchief, "We have cleared out an empty apartment for you. It has three bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room." He led them to a door that said room 709 and pushed it open. It was a modest apartment with tatami mats on the on the floors and the slightest hint of lemon cleaner.

"This will do," Naru nodded, "We will need to speak to every person who lives on this floor." With a nod at Ita, they all entered their temporary home and started to set up their HQ. It was almost noon, meaning they had about fourteen hours to set everything up and interview everyone before the haunting hour would start, "Alright, Lin work up a timeline of the last ten days and every event that took place. Miss Matsuzaki, Monk, Father brown please start interviewing all the residents. Miss Hara please search for any strange presence on this floor and throughout the building. Me and Mai will funnel the information to Lin."

Despite being a complete jerk at times, Naru was proving his leadership skills to be very effective. With this division of labor the work time required to prepare for tonight would be cut in half.

"Mai," a small voice whispered forms somewhere around Mai's knee, "What about me?" Saya looked up at them with big eyes. In her view, it was hardly fair that everyone else got to do something special while she was left alone to do nothing at all. The look on her face was clear; Saya just wanted to be part of the gang, the cool kids.

"Saya play with your toys," Lin suggested in cool voice, already sitting behind a computer.

"B-But-"

"Saya we have to do work now."

Mai could see this would not end well, so she thanked god for the sudden brainwave she just had.

"Why don't you help us by cleaning the apartment!" the apartment was already clean, but it would serve as a decent distraction for Saya who probably didn't know any better. With a raised eyebrow, Saya scrutinized Mai and her request. It certainly sounded bogus enough to be a fake, but as of yet, Saya couldn't be sure.

"Are you sure, cause it looks clean..."

_Damn it. The kid was smart. _

* * *

So guys, let me know if I should continue this or not.

See ya!


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Oh my god! I have just received the** **best response I could have ever hoped for from everyone! _Squeal_! I got eight reviews for one chapter! All of you are the BEST! **

**this means a lot, so I have to thank: _Jwongzy, Fly Away Free Spirituality, Chrysanthia-Sunshine, mguzman94, felicianoludwig, Emina105, Rhiannon the Mage, and Elemental Knight_ for all your kinds words and encouragements. **

**You'll be happy to know that this story is now my top priority. That being said, updates will be infrequent the next few weeks because I have exams. Actually I should be studying now, but I figured I'd post another chapter first. Sorry for any grammer/spelling issues, I tried to edit it quickly and get it posted. I hope you enjoy!**

****Three Ghost Hunters and a Baby:

hapter 2:

"Hi, my name is Mai," with a hand held out in front of her, she surveyed this family, the last one who lived on the seventh floor, "Please come sit." With a nod, the husband, followed by the wife and one small boy all settled on the couch. While other worked in the background, Mai sat with a clipboard in her hand, "I just have a few questions to ask."

"Are you gonna make the bad things stop?" the little boy asked, clinging to his mother's side.

"We're going to try our best," Mai replied with a nod, "And what's your name?"

"Toya Hiro," the boy replied in a quiet voice. He seemed to be quite the shy child as he would barely look up from his feet. Mai felt a slight bit of pity for him. From what she gathered his parents worked long hours and he was usually in the care of a crotchety old woman on the eleventh floor. He looked like a sickly little boy.

"We should get started," Mr Hiro broke in, eager to return the billion emails that were no doubt waiting for him.

"Yes of course-" Mai broke off as a high pitched yell almost shattered her ear drums.

"No, Monk!" a small purple blur barrelled between the couches that Mai recognized as Saya in her new dress, "Don' wanna be it!" Laughing and yelling, Saya was soon followed by Monk, who predictably dashed into the room growling like a bear. The two charged around until Saya bumped into the back of Naru's legs and plopped to the floor.

"Is this entirely necessary?" he asked surveying Monk a small amount of derision.

"She was bored," Monk shrugged. It was far more entertaining playing with Saya then setting up the hundred cameras Naru dragged with him from Shibuya.

"Saya stop yelling," Lin's order came a little sharply from behind the computer and Saya shrank into Monk's pant leg. Mai felt that another round of family drama was on the way and quickly thought of a way to avert the crisis.

"Perhaps a more educational and less _rowdy_ game is in order," Naru suggested with a raised eyebrow.

"Toya, why don't you and Saya go play in the hallway," Mai suggested noting that both Lin and Naru looked rather irritated and it would be best to insure some quiet for a little while so they could work in peace, "If that's alright with your parents of course."

"Please?" Saya asked widening her eyes slightly.

"Yes it's fine," Mrs Hiro replied and nudged her son forward.

"I'm Saya," with a proud smile, the little girl looked at the boy.

"I'm Toya," he replied. It was the start of a beautiful friendship no doubt. Though for some reason, Lin looked a little surlier once Saya was gone.

The apartment had been transformed in the space of ten hours. Note boards, screens, monitors, and takeout food littered every available surface. There were nearly ten tea cups scattered in the living room and kitchen and there were people wandering in and out. After circulating through the building and setting up all the equipment, everyone met up for a quick dinner and an info session. Of course, Naru's food sat untouched on the table, and Mai found that it irritated her for some reason she couldn't pin down. Then again, Lin wasn't eating either. Instead he was sitting behind a computer as always. The younger and more sociable Koujo was sitting next to John for the mere reason that he had offered to give her his dumplings (he didn't like them particularly, and it was enough to win the heart of young Saya).

"Miss Hara, did you find any signs of spirits in the building?" Naru asked while everyone ate.

"Yes there do seem to be spirits," Masako looked a little unsure as she answered, "But I do not think they are behind the strange occurrences."

"And why is that?"

"They seem to be...distraught by what is happening here, rather than the ones behind it," she explained thoughtfully, bringing the sleeve of her kimono up to her face in that characteristic way of hers. It wasn't as though she talked directly with them, but she could feel what they were feeling. They were not malevolent spirits and there were not many of them.

"Yes, I don't think what's going here is caused by any sort of ghost," Naru agreed looking thoughtful. It was his 'I have a theory' face.

"Come on, spit it out," Monk coaxed a little wearily.

Naru stopped in front of a large timeline they had drawn out on a whiteboard. If featured every event that had happened in the last ten days, including the strange hauntings. Laid out like this, the pattern seemed obvious to him, and Naru was sure Lin could see it as well. He turned to the others. John was looking thoughtfully at the timeline that everyone else had so far ignored.

"The hauntings are not random," he explained starting to pace, "Look at the occurrence of events-nearly eleven days ago between two and three AM, all the water on the seventh floor turned to blood, the next day frogs invaded every corner of this floor, the day after there was an infestation of lice. These events all follow a very specific pattern."

Looks of realization were shared.

"It's the ten plagues of Egypt; after lice, it was flies, then all the animals on the floor got sick, boils, hail, locusts," Father Brown was staring at the timeline with his eyebrows furrowed in worry.

"Yes, followed by a plague of darkness and then death of the first born," Naru finished with a nod.

"But none of the kids or animals died," Ayako pointed out.

"Only the first borns were sick which fits the pattern," Lin answered.

"We can assume since no one died that the caster of this hex is probably not powerful enough," Naru explained.

"So the tenants are like the Egyptians," Mai hazarded with a hand placed on her chin, dinner sat by forgotten, "that must mean that anyone unaffected must be the culprit!" Even she knew enough to remember the story of Moses and the Israelites. This realization of Mai's though accurate also meant that their suspect list was quite large.

"Meaning anyone in the building who doesn't live on the seventh floor could be behind it," Monk summarized dourly, "Great."

"And what about the spirits I sensed?" Hara added.

"That has yet to be investigated," Naru explained. Surely the spirits had something to do with the matter, they just didn't have enough information to draw a solid link between them and the plagues that were placed on the seventh floor, "Regardless, I think we should witness the phenomenon tonight."

It was agreed. While the rest of the apartment complex wound down for the day and started to drift off to bed, SPR left every light on and settled down for a long night. Except for Saya who was ordered to bed by Lin. Leading her away, Lin settled her on a comfortable futon in the girls' room. Dressed in her pajamas and clutching that same yellow car, she looked at Lin carefully.

"It's time to sleep," he explained to her and settled on the floor next to the futon. He found the only way to get her to sleep that was both quick and mostly painless for him was to sit with her and place one hand on her forehead. At least it had worked at naptime and last night. With a sigh, Saya didn't move.

"I don' wanna sleep," she replied tiredly.

"Well you have to."

With a huff, she climbed under the covers, cradling the car next to her chest. Carefully, she pulled the covers up to her ears and curled up. Then Lin placed a cool hand on her forehead.

"Lin?"

"Yes Saya."

"Did you like my mommy?"

The question caught Lin of guard. How he felt towards Saya's mother wasn't something he had been able to figure out yet. To call it love didn't seem quite right. At the very least, Lin could say that he had been incredibly fond of her; the woman had both talent and intelligence. Of course she was a far more dramatic creature then him, but it was a personality flaw he had learned how to handle. Overall, he enjoyed the time they had spent together.

"Yes, I did like her."

There was silence for a few seconds.

"Do you like me?"

This time Lin really had no answer. True enough, so far he wasn't particularly a fan of his daughter. She was just a child after all, how could she win his respect and his trust when she was just a child? Respect and trust were how he measured every single relationship he had. With Naru, with Mai, with everyone. Now, sitting next to the daughter that he didn't particularly want, Lin wondered if there was a better way. He had never dealt with children, it was no secret and child rearing was not a skill he ever pretended to have. Still, he could say that he felt _something_ for this child who was still a stranger to him. Deep in his gut was a feeling of primal protectiveness. Of course it was, that was the same feeling that was engrained into every human. It did not equate to liking someone.

"I don't know yet, Saya," Lin replied with a small sigh on his lips. Honesty was probably the best policy. Probably.

"Mom said that Dads and daughters love each other very much," Saya replied quietly and a little bit sadly. It occurred to Lin for the first time that she was probably just as confused and lost as he was, "B-But you don' love me."

"Well do you love me?" Lin asked being the logical person he was.

" 'Course, you're my papa."

The answer surprised him. Children were irrational, irrational enough to believe in unconditional love. That was the only conclusion.

"It's late Saya, go to sleep." It would have taken an expert to hear it, but Lin's voice softened a touch.

* * *

At quarter to two, everyone sat huddled in the living room under a firm veil of silence. After placing a single clear glass of water on the table, Naru sat back with everyone else. And the silence continued. It was starting to grate on Mai's nerves, who never could handle not speaking for very long. Both Ayako and Monk looked miserably tired and Masako didn't seem keen on holding conversation either.

"Did Saya fall asleep okay?" Mai finally cracked and said something.

"Yes." The answer was short and curt as expected from Lin.

"Well that's good..." Mai trailed off, not sure where this 'conversation' was going. They lapsed into silence again. To occupy herself, Mai started counting the seconds in her head. Sixty became one-twenty became one-eighteen and soon Mai's eyes started to droop.

**Crash! Bang!**

Everyone snapped to attention. The clock chimed two am in the corner and that clear glass of water turned a deep red right before their eyes. The crashing and banging continued, getting louder and several children started wailing from neighbouring apartments. Indeed, only a second later the child in their own apartment started screaming lightly and Lin darted to the sound. Looking completely terrified, Saya was hidden in a pile of blankets with her ears covered by her small hands.

"Saya its fine!" Lin urged over the banging, lifting her bodily out of the bed, he cradled her the same way Mai did and held her tightly while she kept her eyes clenched tight, "It'll stop soon." She just continued crying, unable to hear any comfort over all the noise.

"Na ma kusa bazara dan kan!" Monk was chanting loudly in the next room, "Na ma kusa Bazara dan kan!"

The knocking stopped, but the blood remained as water.

"There its over," Lin whispered and rubbed Saya's back. With a swallow, she opened her eyes in fear.

"A ghost?"

"I don't know." Heading back to the main room, he found everyone staring at the glass of now blood.

"I've turned on the tap in the kitchen and only blood is pouring out," Naru looked quite calm. Ayako shivered at the thought. Everyone else seemed to be in varying degrees of worry, surprise and exhaustion. Monk was huffing a little bit.

"The knocking noises were the spirits," Masako added looking shaken, "They were trying to warn us."

"Alright, Lin, we need to get some readings on the equipment," Naru ordered while everyone else just returned to their beds. With a nod, Lin took his seat at the computer and Saya didn't leave his side. Still shaking, she curled into her father's lap, comforted by the foreign cologne. And Lin made no motion to move her. For the night they had come to a mutual understanding. Mai had to admit that it was impressive to see Lin have a child hanging off him and not complain or yell at said child.

* * *

"_This is a strange one Mai." Naru was standing in the center of the seventh floor, in a wide hallway that was by the elevator. No one else was around. Just him and Mai. There was a thoughtful look in his eyes, but even with that serious expression there was a softness on his face that the regular day time Naru almost never showed. _

"_What do you mean?" Mai asked taking a step forward._

"_I can't reach you when the haunting happens," It was a worrying thought for them both. Since she started working for The SPR, Mai's safety net became this Dream Naru who would always guide them, and help them. Judging by the look on his face, he didn't like this latest turn of events either, "The hexer is powerful."_

"_But no one's died yet," Mai pointed out, echoing the conversation they had earlier, "A powerful hexer should have been able to kill the animals and the children." The thought made her shudder, but it was true._

"_Only because the hex is spread over the entire floor," Naru explained gently, "If the hexer chooses a single target, then that person will surely be in trouble." There was a pause, "be __**very**__ careful Mai."_

"_Mai!" Saya appeared at the end of the hall, "Naru?" She blinked staring at him carefully. Then she glared. With her chin held up high, the girl refused to take another step forward._

"_Ah, Lin's child, who would've thought," Naru commented lightly with a small smile on his face. The resemblance was uncanny, "She has talent." It was only expected with such a talented father. Knowing Lin, he probably found a woman with powers as strong as his. No doubt this girl had a potent parental combination. _

"_She really doesn't like you."_

_Yes that was expected too, and he resisted chuckling. _

"_She'll warm up," Naru smiled wisely, "After all you did too."_

* * *

In the morning everyone congregated. Despite having been up and functional all night, both Naru and Lin still looked in top form. Judging by the cups of tea in the kitchen, each Lin and Naru had at least four cups throughout the night. And also left somewhat of a mess. It seemed that with all their talents, neither man could properly make a single cup of tea. Looking at the fallen sugar, spilled milk and tea leaves, Mai let out a sigh. They were hopeless.

"Mai, are you getting breakfast ready?" John stuck his head in the door.

"Yeah, do you want anything?" Mai asked warming up a pan and pulling out some eggs. Omelettes would serve nicely on a day like today.

"I'm just here for some milk," Father Brown replied revealing Saya who was standing half asleep behind him, "It seems she had a long night."

"Yeah, I think we all did," Mai agreed and pulled open the fridge while Saya was settled on the counter, "Did you sleep well?" It was time to do some probing. Mai was formulating a theory about Saya's latent powers. Carefully, Saya nodded.

"Did you have any dreams?"

"Uh-huh," Saya nodded.

"John, Mai we're starting in here," Takigawa stuck his head in the door.

"Coming!" Mai switched off the stove and John collected Saya. Once they settled down, Naru started.

"All the readings from last night point to a human source for this haunting," Naru explained, "there was no significant change in temperature, or pressure and the building seems to be physically stable. The pipes were all changed five years ago and inspected last spring. Furthermore, there is nothing in the building's history to suggest a malicious spirit."

"If it's a human source can it be assumed it's someone in building but not on the seventh floor?" Hara asked thoughtfully. It would certainly make sense. If the seventh floor were facing the plagues of Egypt then they were symbolically the Egyptians in this building.

"We can't rule out a former tenant of the building either," Naru shook his head, "We are going to have to intake a lot of information from the entirety of the building. I've taken the liberty of setting up interviews with all the tenants over the next three days. I have also taken steps to keep Saya entertained." He turned to the small child who returned his cool stare, "Toya Hiro is scheduled on several play dates with you. The first is in one hour, I suggest you get dressed."

That was oddly...sweet. Mildly confused, Mai looked at Naru. He was speaking to Saya like she was an adult. But his actions were actually thoughtful.

"What do we say Saya?" Lin asked from his computer.

"...Thank you Naru..." the words had suspicion in them, but no one could blame Saya for being mildly confused by Naru who up until this point had been a rather cold person, "Lin, can I wear my monkey shirt?"

"Yes Saya, I will come change you in a few minutes," Lin replied. With a smile at them all, she strutted into the room she was sharing with the other girls.

"Well things seem to be getting better..." Ayako, who was always interested in gossip, was intrigued with this sudden change in attitude. Both Naru and Lin seemed _accommodating _of their new charge. It was remarkable.

* * *

"Toya! Toya!" Saya was proving that she had a good set of lungs. The children were playing hide and seek and after requests from both Lin and the Hiros' they had confined their game to the seventh floor. Currently Saya was playing the role of 'it' and didn't quite seem to understand the concept properly. Stopping in the middle of the room she looked around once and then sucked in a deep breath; "WHERE ARE YOU?"

Everyone winced lightly as she hollered.

"Saya that's not how you play-"

"IN THE CLOSET SAYA!" the child called back, his voice muffled. With a loud squeal, Saya streaked past a condescending Naru and jumped head first into the hallway closet.

Naru felt like face palming and instead merely let out a sigh over their raucous laughter.

"At least their having fun..." Mai's words were of little consolation. She had just wrapped up another interview with her fifth family of the day. So far she had seen an upper class business couple, a family of seven, a family of three, a lonesome man with several cats, and the crotchety lady who looked after Toya Hiro. In each room of the apartment, Monk, Father Brown and herself conducted interviews of the tenants, while Naru and Lin dealt with intake of the information. That left Hara and Matsuzaki to do as they pleased. Currently they were out shopping, "Do you two want a snack?"

"Sure!"

"Okay."

The two kids followed Mai into the kitchen.

"Well isn't that lovely," a woman who Monk had just finished interviewing commented. She was in her early thirties and worked as a chef, and was quite successful from what Monk could gather, "That girl seems to be quite integral to your operation." Over the hour, she had witnessed Mai doing various tasks for everyone, including providing tea and moral support to the little girl that ran around with her friend.

"Yeah," Monk agreed with a small smile on his face, "She's kind of like the glue." It hadn't occurred to him before but that was quite true. Before Mai came along, he would have never found himself working with the likes of a stylized shrine maiden, or much less with a narcissistic ghost hunter and his melancholy assistant. No, it was Mai that brought them together.

"Well all of you are very lucky," the woman replied with a nod and headed out the door.

"Mai, the Canas' are here," Lin entered the kitchen, "I'll finish giving them their food."

"Alright, thanks Lin!" Mai bounded out, grabbing her pen and clipboard as she went.

"Lin, can I have juice too?" Saya asked cheerfully. She seemed in high spirits, despite their disastrous first night on the case.

"I don't see why not," Lin poured two glasses and set them in front of each child, "What would you like for dinner today?"

"A lemon tart?"

"That's not dinner, Saya."

...

"What are you having?"

He narrowed his eyes. With her keen observation skills, Saya had noted that her father ate almost nothing. Case and point, she had watched Mai throw out the takeout food that he was supposed to have eaten last night. It didn't seem particularly fair that she had to eat dinner and he didn't.

"I think we're having soba tonight," he replied casually.

"But are _you _eating it?"

Lin sighed. There was no escaping this one, "Yes Saya, I am."

"Then I'll eat it too!"

The girl was a mastermind.

* * *

Have good one guys! As always, reviews as very much appreciated ;)


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I'm baaack! Exams are over and spring doesn't start for a few days so expect another chapter soon! Not sure how I feel about this chapter. Honestly I dislike immensely except for the small bit at the end, but oh well. I'm trying to wrap this case up because I have plans for the next one. Thank you to everyone for reading, reviewing, alerting and favoriting and I'm so sorry for the temporary hiatus. **

**SHOUT OUTS: lil whit; Emina105 (Saya calling Lin was purposeful, good catch! you'll get an explanation in this chap1); akjupiter; mguzman94 (sorry for any confusion! I hope it makes sense!); xX Mai Taniyama Xx; heavenslilgal420; Eli Shikiyori; Chrysanthia-Sunshine; Jwongzy  
**

**Three Ghost Hunters and a Baby  
**

**Chapter 3:**

"Wow Lin, I didn't know you liked soba." Mai commented curiously. For the first time in her memory, Lin had actually finished a full meal. Pushing back his empty bowl, he finished off a large glass of water and sighed. The dry look on his face informed her that he did not like soba, but it didn't account for why he ate it. It must also be noted, that true to her word Saya finished every bite of the food she was given quite happily. Everyone wondered if those two things were somehow correlated.

"I don't."

"Ok then..."

"We've only finished a third of the interviews!" Monk groaned leaning back in his chair. The whole team looked exhausted. The amount of work they had carried out today combined with the lack of sleep from which they were all suffering left everyone tired. It didn't help that tonight was going to be the plague of frogs. No one was looking forward to that one.

"And no one stands out as our hexer," Father Brown added flipping through the large list tenants that they had interviewed.

"This started nearly twelve days ago, we can assume there was some sort of stressor at that time," Naru explained, his own food was untouched as always. Even he had to admit defeat today. Despite all the interviews they had conducted nothing and no one stood out. They just all seemed to be very average and mundane tenants.

"Can we at least call Yasu to come and help out?" Ayako asked looking exhausted herself. She had taken the second shift of interviews and despite dealing far fewer people, she still had the gall to complain. At the very least if Yasu did come, it would give them all some comfort.

"Yes, I think that's a good idea," John agreed nodding.

"I'll call him tomorrow," Naru appeased. Yasu was one of the few people that didn't irk him on a constant basis. The boy was intelligent, rational and actually quite useful.

"He's got exams, don't bother him," Mai quickly shot back quickly. In his last email, the now college going Yasu seemed incredibly freaked by the prospect of midterms and the last thing he needed was to juggle a case for the SPR. Of course that being said, she hoped that Naru felt the same way and would act courteous to another human.

"Yes, I suppose," he replied sounding a tad disappointed if Mai was to hazard a guess. With a raised eyebrow, she wondered about the merits of a blossoming bromance, but kept her opinions to herself.

"Naru, I think I've figured out the identity of the spirits," Masako seemed to form a working theory late in the evening.

"Go on."

"I think they are the parents and grandparents of the current tenants," she explained. It was the best explanation for the protective nature of the spirits, "Over the last five years alone there have been two elderly women and three elderly men to die of natural causes, all of which have relatives one the floor."

"So they're here to protect their families?" Mai clarified. It was a solid theory, "I guess that makes sense."

"It also means we won't be able to exorcize them until we can stop these strange occurrences," Masako added worriedly.

"I see," Naru nodded approvingly. At least one part of the mystery was solved if nothing else. Knowing that these spirits were not dangerous or violent was a very comforting thought, "That's good work Ms Hara."

While Masako beamed, Mai's eyebrow distinctly twitched. They were silent again for a few minutes.

"Wait. Tonight is frogs, isn't it?" Monk looked very annoyed by the idea, "Great, slimy buggers'll get everywhere."

"Oh come on Monk, it's just a few frogs, no big deal," Ayako replied waving her hand at him errantly.

* * *

"GET IT OFF!"

Despite knowing that frogs would invade their make shift home, the shrine maiden still pranced on a table at two in the morning screaming like a banshee. In the background, loud rattling and banging woke the rest of the floor up and there were frogs of every size, shape and colour hopping around every available surface. Over all this noise, Monk still managed to focus his energy and call out a powerful chant to silence the ghosts. The knocking sounds stopped but Ayako continued yelling.

"Matsuzaki, stop shrieking!" Naru had the good sense to order her.

"Keep them away from me!" Ayaki hollered back and hopped onto the counter from the table and then finally she gave up altogether and grabbed onto Monk, clinging off his back like a monkey. Meanwhile Mai tried to shoo away as many as possible using a large broom.

"So much for 'just a few frogs'!" Monk yelled at Ayako.

"Masako watch out!" John pulled Hara out of the way of a frog that seemed to be falling from the ceiling. With a small yelp, she backed up a foot and flattened herself out against a wall. From their position in a corner of the apartment, the Koujo's watched the spectacle.

"Lin...Can I keep a frog?" Saya asked staring down from her perch in her father's arms. Hardly frightened at all this time, she seemed intrigued by the little creatures that were croaking up a storm. In fact the only reason that Lin had picked her up was because he knew Saya's curiosity would get the better of her. Currently her eyes were fixated on a particular frog of bright orange and Lin was well aware that not only could frogs be poisonous, but the brighter ones were more dangerous. The last thing they needed was a trip to emergency room.

"I think not."

"Aww, but their so pretty!"

"**No**."

On the other side of the room Naru was staring at a particularly mean looking frog, hoping to deter it from striking at him. The strategy usually seemed to work well for Naru, whose ice cold glare could frighten even the toughest of ghosts and demons. At the moment he looked a bit stupid glaring at a frog.

_Ribbit!_

Okay, a lot stupid.

"It's going to be a long hour," Mai groaned from atop a chair, the broom was lying uselessly on the floor.

"Why don't all of you head to the lobby until this is over," Naru suggested, still in a staring contest with that frog. It was a suggestion everyone took too quickly. Within seconds Ayako and Monk were gone followed by Hara and Father Brown. Just as Lin was about to hand Saya to Mai, she grabbed his arm.

"Lin can I stay?" Saya asked looking at him with big wide eyes. Judging by the bewildered expression on his face it was the first time Lin had witnessed puppy dog eyes, "Please?"

"It's alright Saya, we'll get Monk to give you a helicopter ride downstairs," Mai intervened before Lin could answer. Despite looking disappointed, Saya didn't whine. The croaking was grating on her nerves if she was honest. With a grateful nod, Lin transferred Saya to Mai's arms and watched as they rushed out of the apartment. Waving her tiny hand, Saya looked forlornly at the apartment. For a second Lin thought she was waving at him.

"Bye froggies!"

Then he realized she was in fact waving at the frogs.

* * *

Ayako shivered, "That was _vile_."

"Oh relax," Monk retorted darkly. The lobby was full of tenants who were evicted by frogs from their home.

"The cleanup is going to suck!" Mai groaned loudly.

And suck it did. Upon re-entering HQ at three o'clock, Mai and Monk were handed mops, Hara and Matsuzaki were ordered to change all the sheets while John was handed sponge and told to scrub down the entirety of the apartment. The frogs were gone but their carnage remained. Conveniently, Naru gave himself the task of watching to all the video recordings they had from the hour. As usual Lin sat behind a screen of some sort.

"Lin can I watch?" Saya climbed into his lap and peered at the screen. Though Lin sighed, he didn't send her away and tolerated her presence. It wasn't as though he was doing anything sensitive or confidential and it was doubtful that Saya would sleep with this much excitement around her.

"If you don't mind me asking, why does Saya call you 'Lin' and not daddy or something?" Mai asked curiously. It was something she noticed over the last few days.

"It's not as though I've asked her to call me father or any such name, when referring to me indirectly she will address me as 'Papa', but on a regular basis she seems to prefer 'Lin'," Lin shrugged, his eyes not averting from the screen, "I see no point in forcing her to call me something else. It seems disingenuous."

"Oh I see." No she didn't, but it wasn't as though anyone else understood Lin either. Shrugging Mai went back to work.

After some deliberating, it was decided that perhaps it would be best if the whole team didn't reside on the seventh floor every night. Frankly, the hysterics over the frogs was enough to convince Naru that if he continued living with all these people in a confined space, he would go insane. Another motivating factor was that tonight would the plague of lice, followed by the plague of flies. Imagining Matsuzaki in either of circumstances made him want to shudder. It was agreed that the girls, with Father Brown as protection, would stay two floors above with the kindly chef lady who complemented Mai. Her name was Namie Sai and she seemed more than accommodating.

"Well that was another day wasted," Mai commented looking around at the now spotless apartment. After the clean up, everyone had been so exhausted that they all fell asleep, even Naru and Lin. The day had been mostly unproductive after that.

"We will find a lead," Naru replied with certainty in his voice, "The answer lies somewhere with the tenants of this building. There has to have been some sort of incident that sparked all of this."

Namie proved to be a kindly woman with a talent for cooking.

"I'm glad someone's here to enjoy it," she commented with a sigh when Mai complemented her roast beef. Though she seemed happy, Mai sensed that Namie was rather lonely. Her apartment was full of books, and DVDs, and she seemed well off enough, but had no one to share her talent or home with. It was a little sad, since she seemed so pleasant.

"This is better than the food we usually get," John agreed, pushing his empty plate back.

"Here, I'll get the dishes," Mai started collecting dirty plates from Masako and Ayako.

"Oh just leave them," Namie replied with a smile.

"I insist, you've done so much for us already." Mai retorted with nod and grabbed John's plate, "Why don't you come help me, Saya?" With an excited nod, the child grabbed her own plate and hurried after Mai, disappearing into the kitchen. Though she was very much against moving out of the seventh floor apartment, Saya had agreed on the condition that she could still play with Toya during the day and that her father would come put her to sleep. She drove a hard bargain, and in the end Lin agreed.

"What is a child like that doing with a bunch of spiritualists and ghost hunters?" Namie asked watching the door that Saya had just clambered through.

"She's our colleague's daughter," Father Brown replied politely.

"Speaking of which, have we figured out what happened to her mother?" Ayako asked with a raised eyebrow. Lin had not yet revealed the identity of his lover, or dropped any hints as to what type of woman she was. Accordingly, Saya spoke very little about her mother as well, choosing to only fall into depression when anyone asked, "I mean it's not as though Lin wants a kid, and the SPR hardly needs one around."

It wasn't that Ayako didn't like the kid, but she was curious as to why both Naru and Lin were simply going along with this.

"What do you mean he doesn't want her?" Namie asked before anyone could answer. She looked appalled by the very idea, "She's his daughter!"

"I suppose you could say he isn't very fatherly," John explained in the gentlest terms he could muster, not that he understood Lin any better than Ayako did, "and our work can get dangerous." The Urado case stuck out particularly in his mind.

"An unwanted child, I can't imagine such a thing," Namie replied shaking her head bitterly before leaving the room.

"That was odd," Masako commented.

"Not really, Monk said Namie had a child once, but she died about a year ago," Ayako replied thoughtfully. It made sense that she would be offended by a man who didn't want his own daughter seeing as how she lost her own. Everyone lapsed into silence after that.

* * *

The next two nights went by without much incident. Monk, Naru and Lin continued to collect data during the haunting hour, while John, Masako, Mai and Ayako finished up all the interviews during the day. Unfortunately, Naru had been absent from Mai's dreams and she had no further insights on the case, but no one really noticed the difference. There was one other thing that changed. While previously the phenomena had been confined to the seventh floor, Lin started noticing it's occurrence on other floors as well. Nothing serious, but he spotted some flies swarming around the ninth floor and considering that was where the rest of the SPR was staying he hardly counted it as coincidence.

"That's not good," Naru commented looking at the data from the night before, "If someone is singling us out things could get dangerous."

"We should wrap this investigation up quickly," Lin replied carefully.

Tonight was when all the animals would get sick. Mostly, the tenants had moved their pets out of the building for the night, but those that couldn't afford a kennel or didn't have anywhere to leave them were forced to keep them in their apartments. Naru wasn't as cold hearted as everyone thought, it was regretful to him that any living creature may face pain in the course of his investigation, but they needed the data.

A loud pained howling woke Mai up and she didn't need to think twice to know what it was. Tonight was the Plague of animals, and the dog howling was the giant Great Dane on the seventh floor. From what she remembered, it along with two birds and a fish were the only animals left on the floor. It was two am exactly and around her, Ayako and Masako both shifted awake. The stared at the floor and sighed.

"Mai?" Saya's voice sounded frightened and Mai carefully scooted over to her bed and scooped her up.

"Its fine, it's going to be fine."

It was the first time Saya had seen anything get hurt. The banging and rattling noises bothered her at first, but since moving to the ninth floor, the child had pretty much forgotten about all the strange things that happened two floors below her. Plus the first plagues were mostly harmless; admittedly the lice had been annoying as all hell, but the flies and frogs were hardly worth too much concern. This was different.

"Toya's dog?" Saya asked quietly as the howling continued.

"No, Toya's parents sent his dog away," Mai assured.

"Then who's?"

"I don't know."

* * *

The next day brought everyone crashing to reality. Naru had ordered them all back to HQ painfully early and when they arrived; they saw nothing but worried expression. Takigawa was pacing and Naru looked more sombre than usual. Things were not going well and it seemed that last night they had gotten worse. Everyone sat tensely while Mai quickly made a pot of tea. Last night's events had made two things plain.

"A dog died last night," He started with the first bombshell. Thus far, the haunting had been annoying, scary and intense, but nothing had died. The hexer was getting more powerful and spelt trouble for everyone, "and an animal on the eleventh floor got sick as well. We can only assume that the hexer is getting more powerful and has started to direct its spell towards the SPR."

"That means something's changed," Monk explained still pacing, "the hexer sees us as somehow siding with the seventh floor tenants, or maybe even having wronged him or her in some way."

"We need to _think_, we've met this hexer," Naru explained moving towards a large stack of files they had made up on the tenants of the entire building, "They're somewhere in this building and have been wronged by the tenants of this floor."

While the adults worked, Toya and Saya visited the man who owned the dog. He was an ordinary man who owned a small book shop a block away. A widower and childless, he had very little in the way of a social life and had always seemed more comfortable while wandering the worlds between two pages. Eiji was an uncomplicated man. As such, he was taking the death of his dog a little hard; it had been his only companion in the world. One can imagine his surprise when two children showed up at his doorstep clutching freshly picked flowers (taken from Toya's mother's potted plants).

"Mr. Eiji here," Saya handed him the five pretty roses she clutched. Like her hands, they had a little dirt on them, but their meaning was clear.

"He was a good dog," Toya commented matter of factly having pretty much grown up with the Great Dane running around.

"Thank you children," Eiji replied with a nod, "Would you like to come inside?"

"No, we have to go investigate," Toya replied a little proudly. Giving the children a small sad smile, the man nodded and shut the door.

After giving their 'condolences', the kids wandered away and ended up settled in Namie's apartment. After giving the kids some lemonade and freshly baked cookies, the chef settled in her room with a book, leaving the children to their own devices. Decidedly, the two stayed planted on her couch and looked around the apartment. It seemed like a much more daunting place when Mai or John weren't around. Everything was neat and perfect, so much so that Saya was scared she would break something and get in trouble.

"My parent's say we're going away today," Toya spoke first, with his eyes downcast.

"Why?" Saya was predictably upset, "Stay Toya!"

"It's dangerous here," Toya shook his head sadly. After talking long into the night, his parents decided that the building would no longer be their home. It made him sad and by the looks of it, it made Saya sad as well.

Things were certainly going to get boring around here. At least for Saya.

* * *

"Guys, what date did the haunting start?" Mai asked carefully. There was a very good chance she had stumbled upon something of critical importance, but double checking was always smart with Naru around to criticize her every move.

"April 13," Naru answered almost at once. He was looking at her carefully.

"I have a report here that says a child died on the seventh floor last year on April 13," Mai explained feeling mighty proud of herself. Crossing the room quickly, Naru scanned the file himself. A single tenant, one of the last ones they had interviewed was the one who gave them that bit of information. It bothered him that no one else in the building had mentioned it; it seemed like no small thing that everyone could just forget.

"From the seventh floor balcony," Naru confirmed, "but it doesn't say whose child it was."

"It must have been Namie's child," Monk answered looking like a light bulb had just turned on in his mind, "She didn't give me any details, just that she had a young child that had died!"

That might be motivation enough for someone to curse the entire floor. An angry mama bear was known to kill for her cubs, so why couldn't a human?

"Naru, what do you think, could it be Namie?" Mai asked carefully, hoping it wasn't true.

"We don't know enough about the child's death, but it's seems like a likely scenario," Naru replied pulling on his coat, "I'm going dig for more information."

Now they were getting somewhere.

By the time Naru arrived it well past eight and they were all just sitting in HQ, reading files or just sitting there. Looking both depressed and frightened, Saya was clinging to Lin more than usual. Toya and his family had left the apartment a few hours earlier. Mai also noticed a distinct change in the atmosphere around them. It seemed heavier and more oppressive and if she were to guess more sinister. Something in the last few hours had changed. Upon his arrival, every heard in HQ turned to him hopefully. Still, he took his time putting his coat away and settling in his chair.

"Would you get on with it?" Ayako growled, "What did you find?" Everyone knew that the look on his face meant he discovered something. It was too smug a look to mean anything else.

"It took some prodding," Naru started grabbing the file Mai had held earlier, "but apparently, for a while the police were operating under the assumption that the child had been dropped. The bars on the balcony are far too high and too strong for a two year old to simply climb over or break."

"Maybe she used a chair or something," Monk suggested shrugging.

"She could hardly crawl," Naru replied shaking his head.

"Well did they ever have a suspect?" Masako asked. It was hard to think any of the tenants they had interviewed could have thrown a child off a balcony. It was just too awful a thought.

"They had several, but before they could make an arrest they received pressure from above," Naru explained looking oddly dour. It seemed the information he had found was more troubling then he was letting on, "some political figure or the other shut the investigation down."

"What?" Mai looked outraged, "A child died and the police just looked the other way?"

"They didn't have a choice in the matter really, they were hesitant to talk about it at all," Naru explained, "Eiji Murakami five doors down happens to be a son of the former prime minister's brother."

"The man whose dog died?" Father Brown clarified his eye brows furrowing.

"Yes," Naru nodded, "Though he was never charged with any crimes, he was a person of interest in a similar case ten years ago in Taiwan where the child survived."

Lin's eyes instinctively went to Saya who had been chatting with the man not hours ago.

"Oh God," John eyes widened in realization.

Things were suddenly more complicated.

"So the hexer is definitely Namie," Mai concluded heavily, "And she's targeting us now because our investigation would have saved that..._monster._" Calling him a man seemed far too kind. Whatever Namie was doing, Mai couldn't find it in her to blame the woman. Eiji had taken her child and when the system failed, she had taken things into her owns. True she endangered an entire floor of people, but that man deserved punishment for the things he had done, "What do we do?"

"We are going to see if we can reason with Namie and end this," Naru explained with a hand on his chin. Thanks to some of the high profile cases they had worked, SPR had some powerful friends of its own. It was quite possible that they could find a judge out there to sign an arrest warrant for Eiji. If the curse didn't kill him, and them first, "Mai you'll stay with Sa-"

**Bang!**

They all looked over head as knocking sounds started sounding throughout the entirety of the building. They were the loudest they'd ever been and everyone felt a chill run down their spines as the temperature dropped around them. The lights started flickering before the bulbs blew out loudly and they were enveloped in darkness. Something had just happened. Scooping up Saya, Mai ran after the others as they rushed out of the apartment. Taking two stairs at the time, they raced to the ninth floor where the noises were at their loudest. Kicking open Namie's door Monk burst in first and was followed by the SPR. What they found was a woman lying on the floor.

"Call an ambulance!" Monk rushed over to the woman who lay unconscious on the floor. Around her were traces of a ritual. There were candles and incense and what looked ominously like blood, "Namie wake up!" Putting two fingers to her neck, he waited for a single beat and felt nothing, "Guys, she's _gone_."

The ambulance and come and gone. They declared her dead on the scene and the official cause was dehydration and exhaustion, but everyone knew that Namie's death had been far from natural. They knew without doubt who their hexer was and what her motivations had been. Now came the second part of their job, the part often the hardest. Breaking the hex.

"We're too late." Naru was inspecting the ritual she had set up, "Lin?"

"She amplified her curse," Lin explained studying the evidence around him, confirming what Naru was thinking. To do what Namie was doing, trying to plague and kill such a large group of people, must have been taxing, and no doubt amplifying her hex exhausted her body and it gave out, "She used too much power and it killed her, but I think she succeeded in ensuring the last five plagues would occur to their fullest extent."

"Fullest extent?" Mai asked curiously.

"Before we saw the muted effects of the plagues, illness but not death," Naru explained, "This time we will probably see the latter."

"And it seems she specifically included SPR and its members," Lin added. With surgical precision he poured through ever candle, piece of wax and chalk in the entire apartment.

"What?" Mai cried looking appalled. Predictably her hysterics were ignored, "You mean people are actually going to die?"

Their nonchalance at imminent death was incredibly frustrating.

"Naru-!"

"Alright so we've got boils, hail, locusts, darkness and death of the firstborn left," Father Brown interrupted counting the remaining plagues of on his fingers.

"That gives us four days to figure out how to break the curse," Monk added darkly.

* * *

"Saya, you need to sleep!" Lin was beyond exasperated. It was late, far later then was proper for a young child to be awake, but no matter what he tried, Saya would not sleep. She whined, cried, threw the biggest tantrum in the history of tantrumhood and then collapsed in a heap on the floor. Currently, she was whimpering into his arm, while Lin tried desperately to understand what was going on. The girl usually wasn't so difficult. It also didn't help that the rest of his colleagues were running around outside busily. Spurred by imminent chaos, they finally seemed to be working to their full potential.

"B-but Miss Namie," she looked up at him tearfully, "Just like _mommy_."

Now they reached the crux of the matter.

"Miss Namie was doing something terrible," Lin explained carefully. According to his baby books and Mai, revealing the awful gruesome information they had discovered today would not be conducive to Saya in anyway, so he watered everything down as best he could, "She ended up the way she did because of that."

"Did mommy do something bad?"

"No, your mother-" he broke off, "Your mother was a very good woman who never hurt anyone. Sometimes, these things just happen."

"Are we gonna get hurt too?" Saya remembered what all the adults had been talking about. It seemed more than likely that they would have more problems to face and at this point she didn't understand any of what was going on.

"I'm going to try and prevent that," Lin answered, letting Saya crawl into his lap.

"Wha' if you can't?"

"Then I'll make sure you're safe," It was a lie; at this point Lin couldn't securely say that any of them were safe, including Saya and that no matter what did, this story may not have a happy ending. It was one of those rare moments of clarity, where he was sure that a lie would be better than admitting the truth.

"Lin, Naru wants your help," Mai stuck her head inside the door.

"Alright," Lin picked up Saya, "Saya, I need to go. You need to sleep." Swallowing, the girl blinked her bloodshot eyes in thought for a second. There wasn't a compromise she could offer. It was one of those moments where nothing could be done.

"Car?"

With a sigh, Lin retrieved her yellow car and placed next to her. Saya hadn't needed it in the last two nights, but today seemed to be a breaking point. For all of them. One step forward two steps back. As Lin followed Mai out of the room, he left something behind for Saya. One of his Shiki. Hopefully it would be enough to keep her calm for the night.

"Is she alright?" Naru asked indicating to the now shut door through which Lin had just appeared.

"She's fine," Lin brushed him off, "I'm going to make some calls. Perhaps another case like this has cropped up before."

"Good, I'm going to see if I can figure out the details of Namie's hex," Naru replied and they hurried off to their assigned tasks without further comment. At the moment they couldn't afford to chat.

* * *

All college/university students have a good summer! And high school/younger, you're almost there!

Drop me a line :)


	4. Random Oneshot

**A/N: This is just a silly little oneshot that entered my brain and distracted me from our regularly scheduled programming. It wouldn't leave me alone though, so I figured I'd post it :) **

**Thanks to: Emina105 (I have many many things planned for Lin and Saya, including something history, a nanny and some good ol' fashion father daughter bonding), Ariana Taniyama (Thanks for your comments, I'm glad the chapter didn't seem rushed :) ), xSapphirexRosexFanx (Ah, Saya's talent will have some light shed on it a little bit later)for reviewing the last chapter**

****Revenge is Petty, but Oh So Satisfying:

It was late evening and the Davis's sat quietly in their living room. Their house, which was quite humble given their social standing, had been silent as the grave for over a year. Since Gene had disappeared, no laughter had rang through their house. As much as they loved Oliver, it had been Gene that held their family together and always brought noise and life with him. Since he left, their house had lost its laughter and since Naru left, neither Professor nor Mrs. Davis had smiled properly. It was Friday night which meant they were sitting by the phone, waiting for that call they received once a week. It was Lin sending them weekly reports on their progress and providing them with a link to their son.

This week when the phone rang they received a surprise; "Good evening mother, father."

Naru's voice immediately made Mrs. Davis's face brighten and a smile appeared on her face, "Noll it's so good to hear from you!" The joy was not missed either Professor Davis or Oliver, both of whom felt a smidgen of guilt. It wasn't as though either of them had tried to make things easier for her ever. Most of her time was spent either researching at the university or worrying about her children and husband who looked evil in the eye on a daily basis.

"How are you, mother?" he asked and though his voice was perfectly steady, there was a small measure of homesickness there.

"I'm very well and you? How are things at Shibuya Psychic Research?" she asked smiling at the telephone.

"We're doing fine," Naru replied after a moment's thought, "We haven't located Gene yet." The words were heavy and held more emotion than he normally showed. They sounded just a touch sad and maybe a little depressed as well.

"Noll, your brother would never hold that against you," Professor Davis replied with a sigh. Despite their opposite personalities, both twins had proven to be in the unique habit of ending up in trouble and taking the blame for it themselves most of the time. He sighed again.

"Sweetheart, we love that you've called us-" and she truly did, "But where is Lin?"

Uh-oh. Lin and Naru hadn't discussed how they were going to handle Saya's situation yet. Currently, Koujo was out with said child to a doctor for a check up. From what Naru could gather so far, Lin was shell shocked to find out he had a daughter, though he was doing well to keep that emotion under wraps. Regardless, this was a fine opportunity for some payback after the many times Lin had ratted him out to his parents.

"Lin in visiting a pediatrician with Saya Koujo, _his daughter_."

...

"What?" both his parents sounded bewildered.

"Lin has found his long lost daughter."

...

"Lin Koujo?"

"Yes father."

"Damn, that's not something we saw coming," his father responded first with a laugh in his voice. Of course he would find this situation funny.

"I think it's wonderful!" his mother cried enthusiastically, surely with a large grin plastered on her face, "It'll do him some good to interact with children. Maybe loosen up a bit."

That was doubtful.

"In any case, I should go, I think we have a client coming in soon," Naru started the good bye process.

"Yes, you should go," his father agreed, "but keep us posted on this little development." The mischief was clear in the Senior Davis's voice. His disposition was more like Gene's than Naru's; no doubt he was planning a Christmas visit or something else equally ridiculous.

"I think I'll call him," his mother replied thoughtfully, "Do take care Noll, and call us whenever you get a chance next."

"Good bye." Naru clicked the phone off. Calling his parents always made him feel a measure of sadness equally with a measure of joy. At least this time he had news for them that wasn't centered around their missing son. He heard the office door open and assumed it was Lin returning. The sound of a child's voice echoing through the office confirmed this and Naru decidedly remained planted in his chair. As of yet, he was not comfortable around the child and had found a sanctuary in his office. About half an hour later, Lin's phone rang. A few minutes later the spiritualist strode into his office.

"You told the Professor about Saya?" Lin asked without a greeting. He had just received an odd phone call where the Davis's gushed over a child they had never met.

For the second time that day Naru had the same thought: uh-oh.

"I may have mentioned it..."

If only looks could kill.

"Naru, you know how your parents can be," Lin shuddered remembering all the family dinners, holidays and vacations the Davis's had pulled him along on. They preferred to think of Lin as a third son rather than employee, which made Saya their first little granddaughter. They seemed to be more overjoyed than anyone else was. It also didn't help that they were showering him with attention which he did not want nor need. Being the introvert he was, Lin would have preferred if this whole matter had been treated with indifference, "You're discretion would have been appreciated."

"Just as yours would have been appreciated when I was hospitalized after using my powers." There was a smug sort of look on Naru's face that very much reminded Lin of the wicked witch from all the old fairy tales after she captured the princess. It was unsettling.

It suddenly clicked in Lin's brain, "This was _revenge_."

It seemed too petty a thought for Naru to have.

"Yes it was."

Apparently Lin overestimated him. Despite being mostly mature, Naru still had the same childish impulses as everyone else. Outside, there was a loud shriek and the sound of tinkling China followed by a loud 'Uh-Oh'. No doubt the tea cups were facing the wrath of Saya. Lin was starting to wonder if Naru's and Saya's mental ages were really all that different.

It will remain unsaid that the cogs in Lin's mind worked to find a suitable form of vengeance.

It seemed petty revenge-seeking was a universal impulse. Not that the geniuses at SPR would ever admit it.

* * *

New chapter will probably be up by the end of the week folks!


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N : Well here's the next installment. I try to research the things I mention in this story and hopefully most of it is right. But please let me if something is glaringly wrong! Thanks to Ariana Taniyama for point out my idiotic 'Saya Lin' mistake! **

**SHOUT OUTS: Ariana Taniyama (thanks again!), ELi Shikiyori (Yes you're right and this plays into my story ;) more in this chapter), Nari-Imouto (I'm a NaruxMai shipper :( I hope you still like the story!) xSaphirexRosesxFan (no godmother/father yet, but I'm planning a pretty kick ass nanny). A great big thanks to anyone who read, reviews and alert!  
**

**SPINOFF: so this chapter is a day late because I was struck by a muse yesterday. I just started watching Darker than Black and felt the need to see what would happen if I stuck a grown up Saya into Tokyo during the whole Hell's Gate business and of course a few Ghost Hunt characters would make appearances and what not...Perhaps a little stupid, but I've got about twenty five pages written of stuff because I'm enjoying the anime so much. Opinions on this particular idea would appreciated since I'm not sure if it's good or just poops.  
**

**Chapter 4:**

Mai awoke to a fiery pain in her back. Resisting letting out a loud yell, she swallowed and gritted her teeth. They had expected this. The Plague of Boils. Curling into a ball, she couldn't help but let out a small whimper and when she opened her eyes, she spotted Masako, who also seemed to be cringing in pain. Behind her Ayako didn't seem to faring any better. A sharp cry emanated from the other side of the room and was followed by sounds of crying.

"Mai!" Saya's eyes were wide with fear and pain, "Mai!"

"Right here Saya," Mai forced herself out of her covers and crawled over to the girl's futon.

"It hurts Mai!" Saya cried silently, gladly crawling into Mai's arms. The dull burning wasn't getting any better, but didn't seem to be getting any worse either. That was a blessing if nothing else. They could push through this for an hour. It was just a matter of one hour.

"I know sweetheart, it'll stop soon," Mai explained bracingly, though it sounded like a weak attempt at comfort even to her own ears, "I know it hurts." The little girl's sobbing was more than Mai could bear, "Ayako, hold her for a few minutes. I'm going to make some ice packs." If nothing else the cold ice would dull the pain, even a little bit. With a nod, Ayako padded forward and once the girl was safely tucked away, Mai hurried out of the room.

Yanking open the freezer, she took out five ice trays and filled nine bags with as many ice cubes as she could.

"What are you doing Mai?" a voice made her jump.

"Naru!" she gasped and froze in her motions for a minute, "You scared me!"

"Ice?" he raised an eyebrow. Surveying him up and down, Mai noted that Naru had his arm cradled against his body as though there was something wrong with it. She could only guess that he had a rather large boil in that area. With a deep breath, she pressed a pack of ice to his arm and he instantly stiffened at the contact. For a few seconds they just stood there before Naru spoke again, "I see. Clever."

It only then he smiled, a small tired and pained smile, but it was a smile none the less. Something Mai had rarely seen outside of her dreams. There was no reason for it; it wasn't as though Mai had done anything too impressive or too smart but something about it had meant a great deal to Naru for reasons she couldn't understand.

"Naru I've been wondering," Mai leaned against the counter with her arms crossed, "Well me, Masako and Saya are firstborns, but what about you?" From what she gathered, only minors who were also firstborns were affected by this curse; Naru was a minor, despite whatever else he thought.

"I'm not a firstborn," he replied with an unreadable expression on his face.

"I see." Mai did not question him further and that was a blessing. With a nod of appreciation, the narcissist picked up three more bags, one each for Monk, John and Lin before padding out of the kitchen. Mai didn't move for a few minutes. Slowly but surely she was gathering more and more snippets of information about him, but this was probably by far the most important.

* * *

Namie's hex consisted of a complex system of hieroglyphs, incense, and what looked to be a statue of Petbe, the Egyptian God of revenge fittingly enough. After doing some digging, Naru found that Namie had studied in Egypt for quite some time, so her knowledge of Egyptian mythology and rituals didn't seem too odd. Except for the dozens of complex Egyptian symbols that were drawn in wax. Those were characters of a dead language that most Egyptians today couldn't read or write. More digging was required. So Naru called Madoka, with the strictest of instructions that she wasn't to enter the apartment building in any way lest she end up cursed as well.

"Aw!" Madoka whined loudly at that, "I wanted to see Lin's daughter!"

"Who told you about her?" Naru asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Your mom did! And she wanted me to mention that you don't call enough."

...

"Good bye Madoka."

Snapping the phone shut, Naru went back to the pictures they had taken of the apartment. To maintain the scene, they had cordoned off Namie's apartment and left it exactly as it was. Pictures of every glyph and symbol had been taken and they reconstructed the spell in HQ. Right now was one of those times when Naru's partner in action was missing. Lin was sitting on a sofa with Saya who had simply refused to let him go. A mixture of stress and exhaustion had taken its toll on the little girl and she had thrown the mother of all tantrums this morning over cookies and a lack of chocolate chips. It had been quite ridiculous if Naru was to comment. After that Lin had decided on a 'quiet time' where she would sit on the couch. Unfortunately she refused to do so unless Lin suffered with her. The child was vindictive if nothing else; Naru was mildly impressed. Looking exhausted himself, Lin was dozing lightly while Saya snored quietly in his lap. Now Naru was far more mature than most people his age, but admittedly he snapped a photo with his cell phone. Future blackmail material (or as he liked to call it, the Lin family Christmas card operation).

Turning back to the symbols, Naru studied them carefully with several reference books around him. Granted, a few books weren't enough for him to learn to read a dead language, but they certainly aided in basic translation. There was something odd about this and he just was starting put his finger on it.

"Well isn't this _precious_," Monk strode in with Mai and John behind him. Snickering, he pointed a thumb at the all powerful Lin _napping_.

"Small things amuse small minds," Naru fired back quickly, regardless of the smirk he had on his face not moments earlier. Giving him a surly glare, Monk pouted, "Does anything about Namie's hex look odd to you?" All three peered at the wall curiously. The symbols and glyphs meant absolutely nothing them. A few were labelled things like 'death', 'plague', 'illness' and 'frog'. Those all made sense...ish.

"Wait a second..." Monk was staring at the wall scrutinizing, "She used the powers of an _Egyptian God_ to initiate the curse."

"Yes, Petbe," Naru nodded, "If she was playing the part of the Jewish people, then for all intents it would be more effective in _Hebrew_. That's why she had to perform the curse twice and then amplify it, why it didn't work the first time around." Surely if she had performed it in Hebrew it would have killed all the firstborns the first time around.

"Alright, we're lucky she didn't know Hebrew," Monk shrugged.

"Yes, but _we_ could use Hebrew to _overpower_ the Egyptian curse," Naru explained carefully, waiting for the light bulb to click on everyone's faces.

"We need to find a Rabbi," Mai concluded at the exact moment Ayako walked in, "I'll look for a list of synagogues near us."

...

"That certainly tops the list of strange things I've heard from us." Ayako continued on her way as though nothing was amiss.

"We're far too desensitized to this sort of thing," Mai commented dully. No one could disagree with her.

* * *

According to a quick Wikipedia search, Mai found that there were only a few thousand Jewish people in the entirety of Japan, amounting to about 0.016% of the total population. However, The David-Beth Synagogue happened to be in Tokyo, and was one of two major synagogues in Japan. This made things a bit easier since they only needed to go Shibuya to contact a rabbi. For the expedition, John, Ayako and Masako happily disappeared for the day, if only to escape the tediousness that was taking place in the apartment building. Several people were now going into hysterics and moving towards that dangerous area of theatricality in the face of possible death. By noon, five people had banged on the SPR's door and demanded an explanation as to why they were still cursed.

"Shouldn't you people have handled this?" a very enraged Eiji Murakami made the mistake of coming to their door and yelling in Naru's face, "First my dog and now me too?"

"Are you a first born child?" Naru asked curiously.

"Yes, what does that have to do with anything?"

"Mr. Eiji!" Saya looked up from her lunch with a warm smile and everyone's eyes flew to both Saya and then to Murakami. Before he could reply, Lin was standing next to Naru, blocking any path of sight Eiji had towards the little girl.

"Only first borns will probably die in the event that we can't break this curse," Naru explained dully, not bothering to give this man his full attention. Of course Naru left out the bit about the curse only working on children. He didn't even look up from the book he was reading on Egyptian mythology. Murakami wasn't worth it and Naru's attention was better devoted to finding a way out of this mess, a mess which likely started because of a crime that Murakami committed, "Are you willing to comment on the suspicious death of Namie's child?"

He sputtered; "Wh-What? N-No I am not."

"I see, because that is the reason all of this happened," Naru explained, "Now if you excuse me, I have work to do."

Mai gladly slammed the door shut in his face.

"What's goin' on?" Saya asked looking at the doorway where Murakami had been standing but a few minutes ago.

"Just eat your lunch Saya," Lin replied settling behind his computer.

"Are you mad at Mr. Eiji?" she asked choosing to ignore her father's order.

"We think Mr. Eiji did something bad, sweety," Mai explained carefully, "We just don't want anyone else to get hurt."

The words were amounted to an unsatisfying answer, but were as good as Saya was going to get. Meanwhile, Lin was facing his own conundrum. His Shiki hadn't been able to protect Saya from the curse. According Mai, the girl had a large boil on her back last night and cried quite a bit. This was not particularly surprising, but vexing. Not being able to protect one's own child meant there was something lacking in the parent, which meant Lin was performing subpar as a guardian who always excelled at everything. This was unacceptable.

It was late evening when Masako, Ayako and Takigawa finally schlepped into HQ. They looked more exhausted then when they left.

"Rabbi says he'll be here tomorrow," Monk replied collapsing on a nearby couch. Despite an unpleasant ticket vendor, several train delays and what he considered to be the illegal sale of mystic charms by some crackpot in Shibuya, they had survived and even achieved some mild success in their venture. Rabbi Kellal was going to gather some necessary equipment before arriving on tomorrow evening's train.

"Good," Naru nodded approvingly.

* * *

Thanks to the imminent danger of hail and fireballs as stipulated by plague numero seven, Naru had all the equipment moved one floor down for the duration of the night. The last thing they needed was to accumulate tens of thousands of yen in broken equipment. His benefactors (ie himself and his parents) would not be impressed with the extra expenditure. However, SPR themselves would be buckling down on the seventh floor for the incoming storm simply because at this point it didn't matter if they stayed in another room or another city for that matter, the curse would simply follow them.

At two, the pattering of rain started and in seconds became a full fledged torrential downpour. The SPR were prepared and hidden under a homemade hail repellent. They were essentially big round metal umbrellas fashioned out of left over metal from a workshop a few blocks away and metal poles, but they would hopefully be solid enough to withstand hail and possibly fireballs.

"This is the most irritating, idiotic case we have ever been on. **Bar none**." Ayako grumbled over the rain drops. Under their particular shield were Mai, Ayako, Naru, Lin and Saya, who for the occasion had donned her bright green rubber rain coat. Despite the bright colour, the girl herself looked almost as pissed off as Ayako and had her arms crossed while she huddled into her father's shoulder.

_**Thunk! Crash!**_ So the hail had arrived. Judging by the silhouettes Mai could make out amid the fat raindrops, they were about the size of soccer balls.

"Why is she so..._morose_?" Naru asked casually noting Saya's less than sunny demeanor.

The look on Lin's face clearly said '_really?'_ He chose not to dignify that with a response.

"Maybe because of the rain _indoors,_ or the _hail_ or the FIREBALL!" sticking out a hand Mai pointed panic stricken at the melon sized compressed flame that landed on the ground with a thump and sputtered out. Following it was more hail and yes, more fireballs.

"One would think, but no. Saya has different reasons for being upset," Lin sighed at his hopeless daughter, "She's angry because her car was packed away with the rest of the equipment."

That was problematic. That little yellow car was as important to Saya as being right was to Naru.

"Ah that," Naru set about searching his pockets and a few seconds later produced said car from the pocket of his jacket. A smile formed on Saya's face and she quickly hopped from her father's lap and gave Naru a hug, which he mostly sat rigidly for. Grabbing her car, she flounced back to Lin. They all sent him looks varying in range from flabbergasted (Ayako) to mildly impressed (Lin).

"Why do you have that?" Mai asked finally.

"I saw it amongst our personal belongings," Naru shrugged nonchalantly as a fireball landed near him and the embers landed on his coat. With an errant hand he wiped them off, "I assumed it would be a good idea to have it on hand in case she had hysterics of some sort."

No, no hysterics here. Just raw anger.

None the less, it was a smart play on Naru's part. It seemed he was beginning to understand children slowly but surely.

"Um, guys!" Monk's voice called over the hail from a few feet away.

"What's up?" Mai yelled back.

"Any chance we brought a bucket or something?"

"Why?"

"...Let's just say drinking that gallon of water before wasn't a great idea!"

* * *

"Mai? You here?" a small voice called through an empty corridor. Saya knew this was the same corridor she had woken up in a few nights ago with happy-Naru and Mai, but right now there was no one there, "Mai!" This time she called a little bit louder. Rounding a corner, she let out a sharp yelp as she bumped into a pair of legs. Looking up, her confusion automatically turned to irritation. Naru. Or Happy-Naru.

"Ah, hello Saya, you've come to visit me again?" Naru lifted her off the floor and smiled warmly when she didn't shove him away. Instead she looked at him curiously; he looked like Naru, but he couldn't be. This Naru was just too different.

"Where's Mai?"

"I guess she's having a harder time sleeping tonight than you," he replied with a shrug, "Tell me, how is everyone doing?"

"Fine," Saya replied; the child studied him for a few seconds, her hand rose up and poked his cheek, "You not Naru."

He was impressed. She was a perceptive child. Though he and Naru always looked the same, those that knew them well enough could always tell them apart. For instance, he was almost sure that Mai knew he wasn't Naru on some level, even if she wasn't consciously aware of it yet. The fact that this daughter of Lin had figured it out so quickly was only a testament to how much of Lin was in her. It had taken him only a few hours with the twins to figure out the subtle differences.

"No, I'm not," he shook his head. The jig was up, "My name's Gene. But you can't tell _anyone_, ok Saya?"

The girl nodded after looking at him thoughtfully.

"Good girl, now when you wake up, I need you to be extra careful around Mr Eiji okay?"

It seemed his was thinking the same thing as her Papa and Naru were thinking, it was something that Saya did not understand.

"But why?" she asked.

"I just don't want my newest friend to get hurt," Gene replied with wink.

"I'm your friend?"

"Of course!" he laughed and set her down, "Now go get some proper sleep."

* * *

The SPR HQ and Murakami's apartment both had substantially more damage than any of the others on the seventh floor. In fact those two apartments were the only ones with scorch marks from the fire balls. The other tenants reported that they faced only hail and rain but not fire, further confirming Naru's theory that the curse was targeted more specifically at them and Murakami. Now everyone was desperate to get this curse broken; too many of their team were first borns, but all of them felt it was also necessary that Murakami be brought to justice. It would hardly be fair that he would get out of this scot free.

"There's virtually no evidence against the man," Monk commented as they reworked the information they had about Namie's daughter's death/murder. Most of the information they had was circumstantial, but it was to coincidental that another child had the same incident happen and that Murakami was the suspect in both cases. This was a pattern.

"Men like him don't simply throw children of balconies and leave no evidence behind," Naru explained with his chin resting on his palm.

"Ok so we find something incriminating and hand it to the police," Monk shrugged.

"We can't just break into his apartment!" Mai retorted quickly.

"I agree, we've already established he's dangerous," Masako nodded, for once not trying to contradict or demean Mai, "And I doubt he would've left any incriminating evidence in a place where we could find it." That was also true enough.

"No, but perhaps we can scare a confession for him," Ayako had a thoughtful look on her face. It was a farfetched idea, but at the moment it was the only one they had. Besides, she wanted to scare that rat bastard a little bit. She was thinking of that ghost in the park whose boyfriend cheated on her; they had scared him so bad by using a possessed Ayako. Perhaps the same tactic could work Eiji, "Think about. At the heart of the matter self preservation is probably the most important thing to him."

"And maybe we can manipulate that instinct," Naru had to admit that for once Ayako was having some useful insights. A séance calling upon the spirits of the dead accusing him of murder and taunting him with the hell fire seemed like a good idea. Any lesser man like Murakami would most certainly fall for that and sign his own arrest warrant in the process. Of course they would need to be tactful about this. It would hardly serve to accuse him of murder and have the authority of the government down on their heads, "Lin, can we call Namie's spirit the same way we called upon that woman in the Urado case?"

Looking thoughtful Lin nodded, "We could probably call upon her daughter as well if it came down to it."

_Even better._

"Alright, Me, Lin, Father Brown and Mai will focus on proving Murakami's guilt," Naru decided, "Monk, Ayako and Masako, focus on aiding Rabbi Kellal in breaking the curse."

The teams split off as the timer started. They were down to two nights before the last plague. No one talked about it but they had three firstborns on their team who were still considered children; Mai, Masako and Saya. This was a weight on Naru's mind; they needed to resolve this case quickly.

* * *

There was only one word that could be used to describe the Rabbi.

"Wow."

Rabbi Kellal, or Abe as he preferred, arrived in a taxi wearing what Ayako was sure was a designer suit and a pair of aviators. With slicked back hair and a bit of scruff on his face, his accent was mixture of Israeli and British and he was nothing short of_ cool_. He emanated the very same awesome presence as say Elvis, Will Smith and Han Solo and made it look entirely effortless.

"Ah, Monk, Ayako, Masako!" he greeted them with warm handshakes, "Pleasure to see you again!"

"You as well," Monk nodded with a small smile while Ayako and Masako blushed slightly.

"So the minyan will be arriving in about an hour and that will give us more than enough time to set up," Abe explained, lugging a large suitcase behind him. He met with blank faces, "A minyan is a group of ten Jewish adults and is required for the process." Looks of understanding appeared, "You see, I deal mostly with exorcisms, not curses, but with a little modification I think we should be able to stop this thing before it gets worse."

"That's what we're hoping," Monk agreed nodding.

* * *

While Lin assembled all the necessary items for their little séance with Mai running around finding whatever he needed, Father Brown was buddying up to their supposed killer. Naru realized they made a serious error in judgement by antagonizing him earlier. In order for their plan to work, they needed his cooperation and for that they needed Murakami to gain a friend, someone on his side. The best of course would be sending in Saya as a lure, but not even Naru was willing to do that. Father Brown seemed like a logical choice since he looked non threatening.

"Good evening Mr. Murakami," John smiled as Eiji opened the door suspiciously. They were depending mostly on John's acting skill for this to work. Apart from playing one of the three wise men in a Christmas Pageant as a child, he almost no experience acting and even less experience manipulating people. Apart from the ghosts he saw on a regular basis, John had a very sheltered life. However with his newly formed ghost hunting family threatened, John felt compelled to whatever he possibly could.

"You're one of the ghost hunters," his eyes narrowed in distrust, "What do you want?"

"I wanted to ask you if you would be willing to partake in a little experiment, you see we over at SPR are at odds about a few facts," as cheerfully as he could, John started his story, "My boss, Naru, seems convinced you provoked Namie into doing this, but there's enough evidence for such a thing to be true. I am simply searching for the truth and I believe you can provide it to us."

The man blinked, distrust still clear on his face.

"You don't think I did it?" he raised an eyebrow.

"The evidence just isn't there," John shrugged, "If you could only answer a few questions, I'm sure I could convince my boss of the same thing and keep him from going to the police."

A police investigation would be mean exposure and that wasn't something Murakami could risk. He would play the ghost hunters' game if it meant ensuring his freedom. Besides, Murakami was a practiced liar and would not be so easily jarred.

"Alright," he agreed. At the time he didn't know that this would be his biggest mistake.

* * *

Of course with everyone, even Mai, being busy, Naru found himself sitting with Saya on his lap while they read Dr. Suess. Admittedly as far as children's books went, Dr. Suess was nearly genius, but still, Naru didn't enjoy reading 'Green Eggs and Ham' again. For the most part, Saya knew the book by heart and enjoyed elaborating on the original story. Somehow, in her version, the Cat in the Hat had a little winged elephant as a pet and preferred oranges to green eggs and ham. At this point, Naru didn't even sigh and just agreed with her. Halfway through the story she turned to him and poked him gently in the cheek.

"Naru?"

"Yes Saya."

"Who's Gene."

Now, Saya was an excellent secret keeper, but she was a detective first. If Gene looked like Naru that meant he must have known Naru in some way. Or at least in Saya's mind, so she could waive the secret keeping policy to ask him about it.

Naru's eyes widened a fraction, while his mind tried to digest that statement.

"Well how do you know Gene?" he asked carefully, wondering if his secret was out.

"I saw him when I was sleepin'," Saya shrugged turned back took her book. _Dreaming. _Saya had been able to connect to Gene is a way that Naru never could. Not even Lin had ever been able to contact him, but somehow this little girl could.

"Ah, well, how do you know he's not me?" Naru asked the next pertinent question. She shrugged again.

"Naru, why does the Cat wear a hat?"

"I thought we were talking about Gene."

"But the hat is so _big_!"

Naru sighed, he physically couldn't help it. The attention span of this child was perplexing.

* * *

Drop me a line and have a good weekend!


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: I'm so sorry this took so long guys! I just sort of ran out of idea and hit a mental block for a while. It took a long time for me thing of a proper resolution for this case. It should be over in one chapter or so. I've already got a few idea for the next case. I'm not a hundred percent satisfied with this chapter, but I think the next one will better. **

**Shout outs: Anonymous D (I'm glad you think Saya's cute), purple.y goodyness (I couldn't imagine Lin as a father either, that's why I wrote to see what it would be like), Ariana Taniyama (Thank you for feedback, I'm glad there were good things about the last chapter), xSapphirexRosesxFanx and Nari-Imouto. You guys are awesome!  
**

* * *

The room was dark and the scent of incense was making Mai drowsy and lethargic. She, along with Naru and Saya, were pushed off to the far side of the room. A small knock on the door informed them of John's arrival and the door slipped open. Both he and Murakami entered. With a small nod at Naru, John looked around him. All the couches and tables had been cleared save for one table by which Lin sat. Upon it lay a sword to Lin's left, two fresh candles before him with incense, and a book of Taoist teachings sat to his right. In front of him sat a small bowl containing a necklace that belonged to Namie; it was a pretty piece of jewellery with a half heart charm. With a practiced hand, he wrote Namie's name, date of birth and hometown in perfect calligraphy and finally the date of death.

"Naru, I'm ready."

With a nod, Naru stood next to the table where Lin was sitting. With a practiced hand, Lin lit both the candles with a single match and then placed the sword across his lap perfectly. Taking a deep breath, he blew outward. A melodious high pitched sound seemed to echo throughout the room and just like the last time Mai had witnessed this, she wondered how on earth Lin made that sound. It was like a small bird and a look of wonder appeared on Saya's face as she heard it. It took a stern look from Naru to keep her silent. For a few seconds nothing happened and then the candles flickered.

Murakami winced.

"What is this parlour trick-"

"Quiet!" Mai hissed, unable to help herself.

The candle flickered again and this time sputtered out entirely. Up against the far wall, a small speck of light appeared. As it grew, casting an eerie glow upon the room, the form became more substantial. Finally it mirrored a human silhouette, a woman. The distinctive flared haircut belonged to Namie. The woman, unlike Suzuki who they contacted during the Urado case, did not seem scared or confused judging by her posture. Quite the opposite, once her face landed on Murakami, her body froze.

"Namie Sai, you are a ghost now," Naru spoke firmly, drawing her gaze, "Were you aware of your death?"

The figure nodded hauntingly.

"Did you die to avenge your daughter?"

Another nod.

"Who killed her?"

A luminescent hand pointed straight at Murakami.

"This is a trick!" Murakami could stand it no longer. With eyes wild and fear on his face, he looked at the ghost, "This is not Namie Sai!" Now came the tricky bit.

"Namie, do you have proof of this man's guilt?"

The ghost of Namie Sai took slow steps towards Lin. Automatically, Saya stiffened and Mai could tell the little girl was worried, but taking Naru's earlier glare into regard, she stayed silent and watched the scene apprehensively. Her tiny fingers curled tightly around Mai's larger hand and squeezed nervously. Once the ghost was standing across the table by the candles directly in front of Lin, she pointed downward.

The necklace.

"He has the other half, your daughter's half." Naru concluded and Namie bowed her head mournfully. All men like Murakami had trophies and now the SPR knew what to look for.

"That's a LIE!" Murakami bellowed and before anyone could blink, the ghost lunged at him. The temperature of the room dropped rapidly and in his haste, Murakami backed into the wall trying to escape the enraged spirit, "Call it off!" Like a substantial being would, Namie lunged out a fist, her aim true. With a howl, Murakami fell to the floor clutching his jaw and before she could lunge again, Lin upturned the table, ending the ritual. Her ghost faded, and the lights were flicked on.

"Let's have it, Murakami," Naru towered above the cowering man, "Are you guilty or not?"

"She meant to _kill_ me!"

"Yes she did." A nonchalant shrug, "now where is the necklace?"

"I-I don't have it!" It was a poor attempt at a lie. A coward's final stand, Naru could tell this would be over quickly.

"Lin, summon her back."

"**NO**!"

"Then tell me where it is."

The man was slumped on the floor, still clutching his face where a ghost had struck him. He was heaving and sobbing and frankly, it made Mai a little sick. Smartly, she turned Saya away from the scene and rubbed her head. After a few deep breaths, Murakami looked up.

"It's in a book."

"_Which one_."

"A journal labelled '2000'. It's behind the painting in the main room."

"Father Brown, please go find it," Naru ordered swiftly. They waited in silence as Father Brown hurried to Murakami's apartment and pulled the painting from the wall. As he stated, the journal was taped to the back to the painting. Ripping it off, John ran back to HQ and handed the notebook over. Flipping it open, Naru found the book was blank, but the necklace was there just Murakami had just sputtered. Naru clicked off the tape recorder. They had their proof and a confession, "Lin, watch him while we escort the police here."

* * *

"Alright, so how is this going to go down?" Monk watched as Rabbi Kellal and the ten other men and women from the synagogue started setting up throughout the seventh floor. From what he understood, the current set up was more suited to an exorcism than a curse breaking. The ten members of the minyan were set up throughout the seventh floor and Rabbi Kellal was standing in robes holding a horn of some sort.

"Well normally in an exorcism we recite Psalm 91 three times and then I blow the shofar," he explained briskly holding up a horn. It was 1:55 am on the dot, meaning the haunting hour was going to start soon and the Rabbi would need to work, "but this is not an exorcism. We _are_ going to recite Psalm 91 three times, and I will blow the horn. Then we will repeat the procedure for the whole hour."

"And that'll break the curse?"

"No, we will need to repeat this process tomorrow night and hopefully on the third night, the spell will be broken," Kellal replied, "we need to let the power accumulate in order to be effective."

"Isn't that cutting it a bit close," Ayako commented casting a worried glance at Masako who did her best to look unconcerned. She, Mai and Saya were the ones in danger if they couldn't break this curse quickly.

"I honestly can't even say that this will for sure break the curse," Kellal looked thoughtful and a little worried himself if he was admit, "But I will try my very best."

Looking rather satisfied with himself, Naru strode in with the other's behind him, "Father Kellal, my name is Kazuya Shibuya, I'm sorry I couldn't meet with you earlier."

"No it's fine," the Rabbi shook his hand congenially, "I hear you were cleaning up some trash."

"Nice job with that by the way," Monk nodded with taut jaw.

"At least some measure of justice was carried out," Masako agreed from behind the sleeve of her kimono.

"Yes, in any case we have more important things to worry about now," his eyes lingered on Mai for a second before returning to attention, "How are you going to break this curse?"

"As I was just explaining, I can't guarantee that I can break the curse," the good Rabbi explained seriously, "It's something I've never needed to put my skills to before." He gave Naru a quick rundown of how they were going to attempt to save everyone like he had told Monk.

"Tonight is locusts," Lin commented, "We should take cover."

It was 1:58, barely leaving SPR enough time to climb in the bee keeper's outfits that Ayako had assembled. Admittedly they all looked a little bit ridiculous, but it was necessary, or at least Ayako thought so. She would damned if she had to stand and get _harassed_ by a swarm of giant insects. Not a chance. No one mocked her, not even Naru, since they all actually felt the same way for once. The idea of locusts was rather distasteful, so with a sigh Naru donned the suit. The minute the clock chimed 2:00 am, a buzzing filled the entirety of the floor and was quickly followed by the loud chants of the Rabbi and his followers. Soon big bodied flies filled every available space.

"This is worse than the frogs."

"Agreed."

"Wow, it only took the ten plagues of Egypt to get Ayako and Naru to agree on something," Mai retorted, trying not to be freaked out the _bugs_ that she could feel through the fabric of the suit.

...

"Lin, can I have one of the big grasshoppers?"

"No Saya, no you cannot."

Everyone flinched as a loud horn sounded throughout the floor, over the buzzing of hundred of the bugs and the chanting started again. As the hour progressed, the bugs seemed to dissipate and at exactly 2:58 all of them were gone entirely. A full two minutes early. Cautiously, everyone pulled off their large netted hats and peered around them.

"Two minutes," Father Kellal had a fine sheen of sweat on his face, "Not as well as I hoped, but not bad considering we just got here." It seemed his plan was working, albeit slowly and time was something they did not have.

* * *

"Madoka, what did you find?" Naru was settled at the breakfast, a phone to his ear.

"Turns out Namie's father was an Egyptologist and a damn good one," Madoka explained thoughtfully. He could hear shuffling papers on the other end, "From what I can gather, he taught his daughter everything he knew, including all the symbols and what not you found in her apartment."

At least that explained some loose ends, even though that information wasn't particularly helpful anymore.

"Why did she become a chef?"

"Who knows, personal preference? rebellion? But I can tell she would've made a hell of an Egyptologist."

"Alright, thank you."

With a sigh Naru turned back to his breakfast, left over take out. Delicious. Despite the glare Mai sent him, he still pushed his plate back and stalked off to their boards and video recordings. Everything was in Rabbi Kellal's hands now, and that bothered Naru to no end. He was not used to sitting complacently on the sidelines simply watching others perform miracles. That was not his lot in life or in this case, but unfortunately at the moment, they had no new information and nothing to do. SPR simply spent their day lounging.

Once or twice Naru picked up a file or two but then gave up. Lin persevered and continued clicking away on his laptop. When anyone asked what he was doing his reply was 'paperwork'. No one at SPR realized the sheer amount of paperwork that always needed to filled out and the amount of connections that they had to maintain. He could sense that Naru was getting bored and a bored Naru tended to be a rather annoying one as well.

"Tell me Saya, did you have any dreams last night?" Naru found his new mission. To discover what secret powers the youngest of the Lin family was hiding. If she was in contact with Gene, then it was quite possible he could make use of that link.

"Nope."

Another lost cause.

Finally, Naru took to pacing.

"Monk, can you check the security footage again?"

"No Naru, I _will not_ watch a billion hours of video again."

...

"Ms. Hara, can you sense anything of use?"

"No, I'm afraid not."

...

"Ms. Matsuzaki could you...nevermind."

"Ass."

2:00 am couldn't come soon enough.

* * *

Finally at 1:50 everyone began setting up again.

Darkness seemed like a far tamer plague in comparison to some of the others. The most anyone could do was implement the buddy system.

"In that case, Naru would you care to be my 'buddy'?" Of course Masako quickly latched on to Naru's arm.

"What that little-!" With her nostrils flaring, Mai looked ready to shove Masako out of the way if she had too, but Father Brown quickly intervened.

"Never been a fan of the dark, Mai," he commented lightly with a warm smile and Mai took a deep breath, letting her anger go. It was hard to be angry when the priest was looking at her so kindly, so for now Mai tucked her anger away.

Monk and Ayako glanced at each other.

"I guess that leaves us together." Ayako looked irritated by the notion.

"Great." Monk deadpanned.

Clutching the hand of their designated buddy, SPR settled in the main room of HQ in close proximity.

The clock struck two and everything was plunged into darkness.

This wasn't ordinary darkness.

The lights hadn't simply gone out.

This darkness was heavy, laden with the weight of a hundred twisted souls all coiled and wrapped around the bodies of the living. Like gravity had suddenly increased, Mai felt herself shoulders sag and her chest grew heavy, making it physically difficult to breath. While she gasped for air it occurred to her that she couldn't hear anything, that the black was so tangible that even sound could not reach her through it.

_Oh God, make it stop. __**Make it stop!**_

But it didn't stop, or recede. Relentlessly, the darkness held on to them, to their souls.

After what seemed like an eternity, the heavy black fog receded. With relief, Mai dragged a full breath into her lungs and was able to move her body properly again. Finally the world came back into view and she could feel John's hand again and she could hear again. Finally, light filled her vision and the rest of the SPR members shared equalling looks of relief.

"We're alright," Naru confirmed and earned a few nods, "Lin?"

They turned to see Lin supporting a nearly hysterical child. In fact, Saya was so panic stricken that her sobs were not even making a sound anymore. Her whole frame would just shudder and shake every now and then and her eyes were squeezed tight.

"Papa? Where are you?"

"Right here Saya, just open your eyes," Lin placed a gentle a hand on the top of her head. Peeking her eyes open carefully, Saya spotted Lin and then the flood gates opened. With a loud holler she buried her face into Lin's shirt and openly sobbed now, "I'm going to put her to sleep." With that Lin disappeared.

"Guys, it's 2:45," Monk commented glancing at his watch, "Kellal managed to reduce the time again."

"Will it be enough?" Ayako glanced worriedly at Mai and Masako.

"Yes it will."

Frankly, Naru didn't know what he would do if it wasn't.

* * *

Mai had never considered the possibility of death very seriously. Admittedly she had been nearly killed during the Urado case, but it that instance there had been no time to ponder death or its eventuality. Settled by the window, Mai now had all the time in the world to ponder what would happen tonight. Basically they would have roughly half an hour to forty five minutes in which all the firstborns could potentially die. According to Namie's curse, the children wouldn't simply drop dead. Egyptian souls would come for them, and it would be SPR's job to ward them off until time was up.

A comical image of a bandaged mummy came to Mai's mind.

She swallowed.

She didn't want to die. There were so many things she still had to do. The want to _do something_ was simply overwhelming and eventually Mai found herself in the kitchen, making tea, cooking dinner and doodling on a scrap of paper all at once to distract herself.

"Something is burning."

Mai glanced at Naru and then widened her eyes.

"My frittata!"

layer was completely black and the inside was probably still raw.

"A frittata?"

"I found one of Namie's recipes," Mai admitted, "I figured even though she was certifiably nuts, we could still appreciate her food."

Most people deserved to be remembered even a little bit.

"I see." Naru poured himself a cup of tea from the pot Mai had made, "For what it's worth, you're handling this somewhat gracefully. In a clumsy, messy way."

Biting the hand that feeds. Mai gave him a weak smile, unsure if he meant that to be a joke or not.

"We'll be fine, everyone will be fine." The words didn't sound very confident coming from Mai's mouth.

"Mai, everyone **will**be fine," Naru replied, his voice sounding far more confident, but even Mai could tell it was just an attempt to make her feel better.

* * *

Lin was pacing. Every now and then he would throw a glance at the child was fast asleep on the couch nearby. After a very traumatizing night, Saya had fuller tuckered herself out and after being crabby all day had been persuaded to take a nap. Lin judged that Saya's mother did intent for her daughter to be part of a war against the undead when she suggested that Lin take care of her. In fact, this is the sort of thing he should have been able to protect her from.

This time when Lin looked at her, he couldn't help but seen a bit of himself in her. In some ways, Saya looked rather like his mother. At least right now. At this point, he still wasn't sure how he felt about this situation, about having a child in his life, but Lin was certain that if she didn't survive he would never know and that frightened him.

"Lin, car?" Saya rubbed her eyes with a fist and glance at him tiredly.

"Right here Saya, it's right here."

* * *

Once again, my apologies for the delay. Drop me a line!

And let me know about a Ghost Hunt/Darker than BLACK crossover sequel for this story.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: case 1=done! Finally. **

**SHOUT OUTS: xSapphirexRosesxFanx (I hope this is soon enough!), ELi Shikiyori (You comment made my day. I'm going to have to find a way to use the phrase 'Holy Son of motherless goat' in everyday converstaion), Rhiannon The Mage (Sneak preview of Darker than BLACK fic at the end!). Thank you guys so much for reviewing and letting me know what you think.  
**

**Chapter 6:  
**

Lin was starting to believe that children could sense trouble much better than adults could. Either that or Saya was extra perceptive. Despite his various attempts to get her to sleep before the impending haunting hour, the child still lay there with her eyes adamantly wide open and her lip puckered into a pout. There had been too many sombre faces that day, too much worry and no one smiled. Nothing, not her car, not warm milk would convince the girl to fall asleep. They were just sitting in silence now, glaring at each other hopelessly.

"Lin?" Saya's stage whisper carried through the darkened room, "You 'wake?"

"Yes Saya," Lin replied briskly.

"Are we gonna die, Lin?" the true concern on her face made Lin sigh. Normal children wouldn't need worry about things like death. It was bad enough that Saya learned about tragedy at such a young age, even worse that she would probably continue face impending doom at all times. As of yet, Lin wasn't sure exactly how Saya had defined death and at the moment had no interest in opening that can of worms.

"Of course not."

"Then why is everyone so sad?" It was a valid question. No one had acted normally today. Like some sort of fog had descended upon them, the members of SPR were talking in hushed voices and downcast eyes.

Mai burned dinner, she **never** burned dinner.

Ayako walked around in hideous sweat pants without a single lipstick application.

Even Naru hadn't quite seemed his chipper self.

Everyone was worried.

"Because tonight will be hard," Lin explained carefully, not sure how much to give away, "For everyone."

"Wha's gonna happen?"

"Well, I can't say exactly," Lin replied reasonably, "But you **have** to do what we say."

Hopefully his powers would be enough to keep the spirits at bay until the curse broke as Rabbi Kellal was hoping. What had been decided was that Mai, Masako and Saya would be as close to the Rabbi as possible for as long as possible and the members of SPR would ward off as many spirits as they could from the three of them while. Tonight, Kellal planned to up the ante and had set up a second minyan; together they formed a Star of David through the seventh floor.

"I want to stay with _you_," she whined reaching out her arms.

"You should want to stay with whoever can protect you," Lin replied thinly. As he predicted earlier, children were irrational things.

"You can protect me."

"What if I _can't_?"

This seemed to stump Saya for a second.

"Then I'll protect you!" A smile cracked across Saya's face as she spoke those words and Lin let out a mildly amused sigh. Irrefutable logic. It was unfair really, how was he supposed to rebut?

"Well that certainly would be a sight, wouldn't it?"

* * *

Instead of looking like ghost hunters, Shibuya Psychic research looked outfitted for war.

Everyone was stretching, practicing their chants, pacing or glaring at each other with stone cold and determined faces. It was a tad amusing really and if the circumstances had not been so morbid, Mai probably would have teased Monk for looking so serious or fumed over Naru who was currently comforting Masako. Instead, Mai practiced her own magic. In addition to the chants that Monk taught her and the nine cuts that were Ayako's doing, Mai was practicing an additional hymn that Monk had explained to her.

It was called 'The Mantra Complete Abandoning the Action of Mara'. As the story went, if one recited this mantra with utter focus and devotion, they could purify billions of negative karma at one. Of course that estimate was mostly for the most skilled of men and women, something which not even Monk claimed to be. But it was something, a bit more protection for a novice like Mai. It had a beautiful tone to it when Monk recited it, but Mai couldn't quite get her voice to match his tenor. Still she murmured it to herself.

"Kazuya, do realize what you've gathered here?" Father Brown was surveying the sight around him with mild admiration, "You've collected a priest, a rabbi, a Shinto priestess, a monk, an omnyogji and medium all in one room."

This had to be one of the first ventures of the sort that made use of talent indiscriminately and successfully. Regardless of religion, race or creed a large group of extremely powerful men and women had gathered together and in fact were colleagues. Having been quite well travelled from quite a young age, John knew that this was rare, that people tended to quarrel more often than they worked together.

"Your point?" Naru looked around him as though seeing nothing out of the ordinary.

"It's remarkable, everyone here using their skills and sharing knowledge for a common good," John smiled again, "We're quite extraordinary, if I do say so."

"He's right," Kellal nodded, "When I heard of it, I could hardly believe you managed to gather this many spiritualist in one place." Had he not been impressed he probably wouldn't have taken the job.

As usual, Naru simply nodded as though it were a matter of fact.

"Guys we've only got a few minutes," this pronouncement ended any conversation and the pit in Mai's stomach got worse.

"Alright, Mai, Masako and Saya stay as near to father Kellal as possible," Naru ordered, "Monk, put up the barrier."

Nodding, Takigawa took point and embedded the four points of the hallway they were standing in with a seal, digging in the point into the wood floor securely. Once the barrier was up, he moved back. They hoped it would be enough to keep the spirits at bay, but also knew that it probably wouldn't hold. They all readied themselves.

Somewhere, an alarm chirped loudly signalling the beginning and almost immediately, the Rabbi and his followers started chanting loudly.

At first all they could hear was a faint creaking. It was so light they almost missed it.

**BANG!**

A loud crash extinguished all the lights in the building in exactly the same instant.

The chanting wavered for a second and then started again, this time louder.

The creaking. The creaking sounded again.

Slow footsteps making no sound but creaks. More than one set. Possibly dozens.

"Their pushing against the barrier," Monk breathed in the darkness. He could feel the weight of the spirits pushing against his force field.

Naru shined a flashlight and Mai took an automatic step back.

Eyeless, tongue-less monsters.

That's what they were.

"Lin!" Saya started running towards him.

"Saya don't move!" Lin's words were harsh to cover up his alarm. Whimpering, Saya wrapped an arm around Kellal's leg and he didn't even flinch, but placed a reassuring pat on her head.

Mouths hanging open with blackened teeth and dripping blood from their empty sockets, they were bone thin, with ribs jutting garishly against skin that looked like death itself, mottled with grave dirt and a million lashes. They didn't moan, like in movies and they didn't seem aware of anything except the urge to get their targets. Their shadows looked twisted and horribly bent. Ghastly senseless monsters that looked nothing like a human spirit. These were creatures that looked to be straight out of some all consuming fiery pit.

"Monk, is a barrier holding?" Naru's voice didn't waver, no fear showed on his face. Mai wished she had his focus.

"Not for much longer," Monk's voice sounded strained and out of breath. The demons or whatever they were pushed against his power with great force. Monk was good, but even he couldn't hold off a hundred avenging demons. These creatures were out for blood and soul, a few tricks would not be enough to keep them at bay.

"Give us a warning before it collapses," Naru ordered briskly, "Lin, Ayako, once Monk signals you, start clearing path."

"What are you thinking?" Ayako asked.

Naru was reminded of the great labyrinth in Greek mythology where the Minotaur was imprisoned. It had been Ariadne who had given Theseus a ball of golden yarn to lead him through the maze so he could vanquish the Minotaur and return to her. From what he remembered, Theseus deserted her once they escaped Crete. That part certainly wouldn't happen here, but perhaps the building could be likened to a maze. Perhaps there was a way for them to fight this enemy. They knew the terrain better, and just like Theseus had been able to outwit the Minotaur, perhaps could outwit these monsters.

Gene and he used to have books and books of mazes and puzzles. It was one of the few things they did together.

Swallowing, Naru put the thought out of his mind.

"We need to figure a way out of this labyrinth, like Theseus."

"If we split up we may have a better chance," Lin suggested.

"No, we need to put up a united front," Naru shook his head, "I suggest we take the west stairwell down two floors and trap them in the lobby." Down below, there was a large open area and if they could lure enough creatures into that lobby they could box them off at each of the three entrances. For that they needed an enticing lure.

"We'll need bait," John pointed out worriedly.

"Not a **chance**, we are not using one of them as _bait_." Monk was vehement.

"I'll do it," Mai spoke up quickly.

"Mai, **no**, you cannot be as crazy as him," Ayako scolded, "And why the **hell **would you even suggest that, Naru?"

"Guys, we've got a minute, maybe less!" Monk warned.

"We don't have time to argue!" Mai retorted swiftly. That was the truth of it. If they didn't act now, then neither she, nor Masako or Saya would make it. Under the circumstances, they didn't have very much to work with.

"I'm going with her," Naru decided, "Monk, Lin and John should be enough to cover the entrances to the lobby."

"Agreed," Lin nodded.

"Get ready."

There was a flash of light and the first one fell through the barrier.

Mai and John were the first ones into the stairs with Ayako and Masako behind them, Saya in Ayako's arms. Naru was lagging behind, watching Lin and Monk fight of the demons as they scrabbled into the stair well. With a burst of adrenaline, Mai jumped down three steps at a time.

"Mai, when you get the lobby, use your clairvoyance to attract them!" Naru called from somewhere behind her. Nodding, Mai continued flying through the stairs. The rest of SPR followed, making sure none of the monsters could break through their defence.

"Ayako, protect Masako and Saya from any stragglers!"

"Got it!"

Mai stopped dead center in the lobby and took a deep breath.

Using her clairvoyance was not something Mai knew how to do exactly; so instead, she just stood there chanting as loud as her voice would allow. If she could do this, then they had a chance.

The silence was broken by creaking. The same eerie sound with which the monsters had arrived.

Inhaling and exhaling carefully, Mai remained as calm as she possibly could. All she needed was faith, faith that her family would not let her down. They started entering then. Their gnarled feet scraping against the floor hideously, their empty eye sockets watching her. Stopping nearly ten feet away they circled Mai as though she were prey.

_You come willing?_ The words were wheezed by one of the creatures. It sounded like a foul air.

This was it. She was alone, unprepared and unable to defend herself.

_No, have faith!_

She ordered her herself, repeating these words and just continued chanting.

_The silly spell won't help you._

**No.**

_You can surrender._

**No!**

_You're coming with us. _

**NO!**

"She isn't." That was Naru's voice.

Monk appeared in the doorway directly in her line of vision.

Then all hell broke loose.

There were monsters, spirits, and magic flying in all directions. All Mai could do was hit the deck. All of SPR was fighting now, even Masako was there, using whatever skills she had to take down as many enemies as she could. In a swift move, Lin's Shiki circled the room, taking out anything that got too close to Mai or Masako. Monk, apart from chanting and doing his thing, had taken a more physical approach. Interspaced between a mantra, he would toss a punch here and there, and at one point, roundhouse kicked a rather shrivelled looking insect of a creature. Ayako was cutting down enemies with a fair amount of flair too, slicing them with invisible minds.

And Naru?

"Mai, where are you?" his voice called above the din.

"HERE!" Mai hollered from the floor and screamed when a pale hand grabbed her wrist. It took her a second to realize that this hand was both human and warm. It was Naru, he found her. With a great push, he yanked her into standing position, "Naru, where's Saya?"

"With a member of the minyan," Naru replied as they manoeuvred through the room. Neither of them were capable of fighting (Mai had used up all her vast knowledge and Naru's heart tended to stop beating when he showed too much bravado), so the meandered through the thrash of bodies, dodging and avoiding whatever they could.

It was only one fifteen. At best they had to last another fifteen minutes. At worst, Father Kellal would collapse before he could finish.

What they needed was a little extra help.

"I have a plan!" Naru shouted, yanking Mai along, "we need to find Saya!"

Mai didn't bother asking for an explanation and simply followed Naru out of the room. They needed to be quick before the monsters started chasing them. Sprinting down the hallway, they hurried back upstairs and into Murakami's apartment where two members of Father Kellal's congregation were stationed. Saya was sitting on the floor with her knees pulled to her chest.

"Saya we need your help."

The girl looked up, astonished that they were there and before Naru could say another word, she let out a loud wail and wrapped herself around Mai's legs.

"Mai, I'm scared!"

"We know Saya," Mai bent down to her level, "we need your help."

"What?" Saya looked up with bloodshot eyes and a little bit of snot dribbling from her nose.

"Did your mother teach you a mantra for peace?" Naru asked quickly. Saya nodded with an oddy look her face, "Can you recite it for-"

Mai sharp yell cut off his order. Turning back, all Naru saw her a ghostly hand wrapped like a vice around Mai's ankle, dragging her sharply across the floor. With nails scrapping against the wood, Mai tried to fight it. Naru dove across the floor and grabbed her wrist before she could disappeared through the doorway. Bracing himself he pulled.

"MAI!" Saya hollered.

"Naru-!"

"It's alright, I've got you!" Naru silenced her roughly pulling on her arms, "Saya, the mantra!"

He wasn't strong enough to hold Mai. He knew that. They had only seconds.

"Om bhadram no apivaataya manah.  
Om shantih, shantih, shantih!"

_Not loud enough._

"Louder, Saya!"

* * *

Father Kellal's strength was ebbing. Finishing his recitation of Psalm 91 for what seemed like the billionth time, he brought the ram's horn to his lips and blew.

* * *

"Om bhadram no apivaataya manah.  
Om shantih, shantih,

**shantih**!"

* * *

The last syllable was perfectly in time with the loud horn that echoed throughout the whole building.

For a second everything stilled.

With a muffled yelling the things died. Like marionettes with master, they suddenly slumped falling in grotesque tableaus across the floor. The grip of Mai's ankle loosened and she quickly scurried away from the monster.

In a single blink, they were all gone. Faded away to something smaller than dust, something even more insubstantial than nothingness, back to the hell they came from.

For a while no one moved.

* * *

"So let me get this straight, Saya's mother is the famous Brahmin Priestess Pooja Saraswat?" Monk looked mildly astounded by this news. They had gathered back at HQ all tired and drained to recount exactly what had happened. The woman in question had been the most famous Brahmin of the decade with fantastically strong powers and an amazing ability to heal.

"So, Saya's a Brahmin?" Ayako concluded, "Some kids get all the luck."

She was part of a clan of the highest order in Hinduism. Brahmins were worshipped for their spirituality and greatly respected for their powers. Not to mention that Saya also probably inherited her father's powers. Even at this young age, Saya had aided in breaking such a powerful curse and hadn't even broken a sweat. This kid would grow up to be something alright.

"I'm just glad this over," Masako looked truly tired; her hair was a mess and her kimono was badly damaged, but all she could do at the moment was curl into the couch and rest.

"Yes, we avoided any causalities," John agreed.

"Any chance we could leave tonight? I'd rather not sleep here for another night," Ayako groaned. Despite being bone tired, the other's had to agree.

A few weeks later:

"Grabbing lunch?" Mai spotted Lin as he entered their office building. It had been a long day at school and Mai was ready to relax. It was funny how work was her way of unwinding. The elder man was carrying several bags of takeout food and looked a little bit surlier than usual, "What's wrong?"

"The new Nanny's here." Lin had a general distaste for people. As such, having a complete stranger suddenly thrust themselves into his life was both unnerving and high annoying. He had taken to treating the nannies with a general level of irritation. Perhaps a little childish, but no one claimed Lin was mature. Mysterious, reserved, quiet and calm yes, but never mature.

"I'm sure this one will work-"

As if the Gods were at work, the front door of Shibuya Psychic Research burst open and a portly woman practically sprinted out, barrelling past Mai, cutting her hopeful words short.

"I hereby tender my resignation, Mr. Lin!" she yelled, storming out of the building.

With a modicum of dread, the two entered the office. Saya was settled comfortably next to Naru, her head peering at the book he was reading on Greek Mythology. Currently he was recounting the tale of how Cronus ate his own children. Not the most pleasant of afternoon stories. Neither seemed concerned by the fact that their latest employee had left in such a huff.

"Saya," the tone of Lin's voice suggested he was not impressed, "Why did Mrs. Suoh run out of here like the hounds of hell were chasing her?"

Saya blinked.

Then her eyes widened in alarm and she scrambled to find an escape.

"Naru did it!" she quickly pointed a finger of blame.

Now, Lin knew that his elder ward was probably just as petty as Saya. If she wasn't scaring them off with tales of dead men and strange apparitions, then Naru's was being cold, snide and rude. No doubt both of them had a hand in this latest disaster. For the last several weeks, woman upon woman had been storming out of the office thanks to the potent combination of Saya and Naru. Even the most seasoned child carer threw her hands up in despair and ran away. His precocious daughter seemed to have a very specific sense of what a proper nanny should be.

"It took me days to convince her to come out of retirement!"

"She was ingenuine," Naru sniffed in a dignified manner, "She was under the impression that Saya was dolt and I was an idiot." The woman had the gall to suggest that he, the great Oliver Davis, was not intelligent enough to make it the 'real world' without a 'proper education' and that he should give up this 'ghost hunting drivel'.

And she scolded him

_She scolded him _for reading Saya stories about an ancient civilization that played a critical role to birth western development and the modern age. Apparently teaching children about Minotaurs and the underworld was not appropriate, though he could hardly figure why.

"What did you do, Naru?" Lin sounded almost resigned.

"I simply informed her that she was being an atrocious specimen of a human and that treating the girl like an utter twit would only make her one."

...

"And then Saya 'accidentally' dropped a large bowl of on her foot."

A menace. That's what they were.

In every other occasion, Naru showed nothing but cool indifference towards Saya, but as soon as strange women started pouring into the office they had formed a most unholy alliance and conspired constantly to get rid of them. And were successful.

"That's five nannies in three weeks," Mai commented with a smirk, "Monk owes me twenty yen."

CASE CLOSED

* * *

Darker than BLACK crossover fic preview:

It was a desolate place. In the old days there wasn't a single street or alley in Tokyo that was ever empty. Now, since Hell's Gate had appeared, there were places in the city that were always empty. Places that never knew the light of day or happiness. It was sad and unfortunate, especially since the empty street looked so pretty in the light snow. Little flakes of snow shimmered in the street light and looked like diamonds. For Saya they were as costly as diamonds and far more beautiful. It was a great sadness that no one was around to see the beauty.

"That damn gate," she murmured to herself and wrapped the purple scarf tighter around her neck. Her breath looked like icy mist. With a sigh, she started walking, feeling pity that the perfect snow was marred by her footsteps. Her long hair was pulled into a side braid and hidden under a woolly hat against the cold.

A shadow appeared then. It stood just across the street and drew her gaze. The green coat and pants stood out almost garishly against the brilliant white snow. Both of them stopped walking and he froze when he sensed her gaze. He looked familiar; that dark messy hair and the way it fell into his eyes, his damned mournful eyes. She knew them she had seen them before. All at once the memory came rushing back; at the ripe age of ten, she had been introduced to the new neighbours that moved in next door to Shibuya Psychic Research's offices. Before her old friend could disappear, the Saya hoped over the railing and ran across the street with a pleased smile on her face.

"Li?" she asked, recognition clear as day on her face, "I don't know if you remember me-"

"I do."

**And another little tidbit for you guys:**

"I must say you're handling this well," Mao commented ignoring her question. Hopping from his position on the windowsill, he padded over and settled on the table directly in front of her. His gaze was piercing, well for a cat, "Here sits a talking cat, and a man who you thought a friend. Hei said you were theatrical."

_Theatrical_. For some reason that made her snap.

"Fuck you!" she spot furiously and threw herself away form the cat, shoving away as far as she could from him, "I'm sitting here, beaten and bruised, while that idiot-" pointed at Hei who set his gaze on her, sensing a breakdown was imminent, "_cooks_. I don't know who's who anymore, ALRIGHT cat?" the words echoed above the roof and tears spilled from Saya's eyes as betrayal surged through her being again, "_Hei_ can go jump _off a cliff_ and you, sir, can _drown_ for all I care!" her words lost some of their fire when she stared at Hei's black eyes that didn't seem so impassive and emotionless anymore, "Your one of _them_, one of the people who _ruins_ lives-"

"A contractor," he finished for her, his eyes stony black.

With a bark like laugh, she continued, "No, a liar."

"All contractors are liars," Hei replied quickly, turning back to his wok.

"So is everyone else. You, my father, and me too. "

The childhood friend Hei remembered had not been such a cynic.

With his nostrils flaring, Hei set down the wok and stood in front of her, "Explain."

* * *

Anywhoo drop me a line when you get a chance!


	8. Chapter 8

Case 2? Oneshot? You decide!

Let it be said that Naru would never admit to enjoying the company of a child. Put simply he had not been in contact with children on any regular basis since he himself was a child. Until of course Saya Lin arrived on the scene with her dimples and smiles enchanting everyone but him. Since then, Naru had found his life somewhat complicated.

Firstly, this child had a unique habit of disarming him at the most inconvenient times. Case and point to three days ago when she commented that Kazuya Shibuya sounded 'like the kind of name that belonged to a fake person'. Considering that the name was indeed an alias, Naru had to admit that her words jolted him for a second before he retorted with 'aren't you a rude child'. The afternoon had ended in stony silence from both parties.

And secondly, Naru was sure that Saya had 'met' his death brother Eugene at some point in her dreams. That fact that a small child could contact him _accidentally_, while Naru, a well trained spiritualist and ghost hunter could not even manage a day dream was incredibly frustrating and if Naru were petty a tad bit insulting. It also didn't help that Saya was quite good at dodging any questions about her dreams involving Gene.

However the rather mismatched pair discovered several things they had in common:

Firstly, both often received consternating looks from both Lin and Mai over their antics.

Secondly, they both enjoyed reading and often spent empty afternoons with a book between them.

Finally, Naru had discovered someone who enjoyed going to the theater. No one else in his life in Japan enjoyed schlepping to Shinjuku to watch a three hour play that usually ended tragedy, but for some reason, Saya did. It became a sort of tradition for them to go to a play once a month, sometimes escorted by Lin, but sometimes the older man would bow out.

Today they were going to the replica of Globe Theater in Shin-Okubo to see a modern adaptation of The Twelfth Night. Dressed to nines, the pair caught a train and soon found themselves standing in front of the theater.

"What are we seeing, Naru?" Saya asked looking at the big building before her. After much coaxing, she had agreed to wear the dress that Ayako had bought her. It was a frilly thing that Saya had no patience for but after a lecture from Lin on the etiquette of gift receiving, she had agreed to wear said dress. Naru on the other hand had donned a dinner jacket and looked to be cutting quite the rug if Mai's blush earlier this afternoon had been anything to judge by.

"The Twelfth Night," he replied hurrying past the box office and towards the ushers and attendants. They weren't late by any means, but Naru was quite ready to get out of the rather nippy air outside that was only getting colder as the day ended. The warmth of the theatre was a welcome treat and both Naru and Saya followed a portly usher to their seats which were what could be donned as the best seats in the house which were up in the balcony, "We read a little bit of it yesterday, remember?"

Saya nodded, "The one where Viola plays soccer dressed like a boy?"

...

_Huh?_

"Um...no." then it suddenly occurred to him exactly what the child was talking about, "This is not some Amanda Bynes adaptation where the Duke is some ridiculously rugged football player."

Mai had a fondness for romantic comedies. It was very...emotionally draining to entertain her ridiculous romanticism about said genre. Apparently Masako and Ayako enjoyed them as well; Both Lin and Naru had also had inexplicably little experience with the_ girlier_ things in life. Apparently having a living little doll made all the women around mildly crazy.

"Too bad," the girl shrugged, "I like Amanda Bynes."

"Leave thy vain bibble babble," Naru quoted to himself bemusedly at the thought of yet another person telling him the merits of a Mr. Channing Tatum.

"Naru, is that Lady Macbeth?"

Naru's eyes followed Saya's little finger which was pointing at a strange person at the edge of the stage.

_Mysterious death of local actress._ The headline entered Naru's mind and he mentally groaned. The spectral ghost was not Lady Macbeth, despite the knife she was holding high over her head with a maniacal glare on her face.

"We'd best call Lin."

So much for a quiet evening at the theater.

* * *

**Shout outs: Why hast thou abandoned me? **

**A/N: Sorry about the late update, I sort of just lost my muse after the last chapter. I had no ideas what to do for the next case or anything. Anywho, I'm back now. Not sure if this is a oneshot or a new case. Let me know your thoughts and let me know if the last chapter was any good.  
**


	9. Chapter 9

Case 2: Chapter 1

"Naru, Naru!" as usual, Naru's office door burst open and little Saya Lin came bounding in. The girl had no understanding of knocking or of being quiet. As it turned out she was quite the chatter box and unfortunately it seemed she had chosen this moment to tell him some no doubt long winded story about some mundanity that had occurred in her precious little life, "Someone brought pastries!"

Case and point. Naru sighed in a superior sort of way, but still followed Saya out to the main room, if only to get his first pick on the sugary goodness waiting in the kitchenette and to get a look at someone who brought fancy desserts into his office. Next to the box of expensive pastries was Mai standing next to-

"Yasu, what are you doing here?" Naru glanced at the young man before swiping a brownie from the box. These particular brownies reminded him very much of the ones his mother baked back home and if he was to guess, Lin was of the same opinion because the man was standing not far away holding the same thing in his hand. Both men glanced at each other with varying looks of bemusement and raised their fudgey treats in a silent salute.

All hail to the brownies of Mrs. Davis.

"I just finished school-"

"He's on the Dean's List!" Mai added excitedly. For some reason, Mai's sudden enthusiasm for Yasu's life brought a small twinge to Naru's eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it came and he could hardly explain why.

"Yes, which is why I brought pastries for everyone as celebration," Yasu replied nodding, "And I'm off for summer now, so I was wondering if you guys had any cases I could help on."

For Yasu, working and helping out at SPR had become somewhat of a fascinating hobby. He didn't feel passionately enough to actually become a ghost hunter, but rather enjoyed the cases that he worked on occasion. There was a sense of fun around him that he never got at school or home. Of course there was the addition of a young child with features remarkably like a certain sullen assistant that promised even more amusement in the weeks to follow.

"Actually there is one case I am thinking about taking," Naru placed a hand on his chin thoughtfully. It seemed like an odd one, not anything overly dangerous, just odd. Well at least on the surface. Naru was willing to bet that something far more sinister was waiting on the surface.

"Is it the one at the theatre?" Mai asked from the small kitchenette where she prepared tea and snacks for an afternoon snack. The strange ghost at the theatre was certainly straightforward, especially for Naru who prided himself on being a superb know it all. It was interesting sure, but hardly a case really worth all their talents. It was probably something even Ayako could handle on her own.

"No, I am thinking of the one regarding the parks," Naru replied chewing his brownie thoughtfully.

"Parks?" Yasu raised an eyebrow as Naru and Lin shared a look.

"For the last several years people have been going missing in parks around Tokyo, eventually their corpses reappear but either as bodies devoid of blood," Lin explained smoothly and waited for the comment that was sure to come regarding blood sucking demons.

"Like vampires?" Mai looked incredulous while Lin and Naru looked unsurprised by her reaction.

"We don't know that, we don't even know that the deaths are actually connected. But a few cops compiled a file and asked me to look over it," the head of SPR looked thoughtful. Truly the deaths seemed to be unrelated, but all the bodies were found in the same nine parks over the last ten years with the most recent being in Meiji Shrine in Shibuya. Still, something about the whole matter nagged at Naru's mind. Something about these deaths, about these patterns felt supernatural, it was like a feeling in his bones.

"Hey new guy, can I have that lemon tart?" Saya pointed at the pastry Yasu had picked out for himself. It sat in front of him with a plate and he looked hardly taken aback by her sudden and blunt question.

"Saya, that was the height of rudeness, Yasuhara is a colleague," Lin quickly scolded in a low voice while Yasu just looked amused.

"You can have it, if you agree to call me Yasu from now on," he informed the girl with a chuckle, while Lin just sighed. With longing eyes, Saya stared at the pastry and then back at the young man to whom it belonged.

"Alright, Yasu."

"Have fun, little one." Children were not something Yasu ever thought about on any level before, but admittedly that particular young girl was proving to be adorable, "Can someone explain little Miss Saya Lin to me please?"

"Oh that is a long story," Mai shook her head at the child who was settled comfortably on the floor with a fork. There was already some icing in her hair and Lin shuddered at the thought of tonight's bath where he would have to get it out, "I'll fill you in later."

Which reminded him that he was low on shampoo.

And let's forget the laundry that awaited him.

And groceries that need to be bought and consumed at alarming rates.

...

He really needed to find a nanny and quickly.

"Once again we are off track because of Saya," Naru sniffed derisively. His words caught Saya's attention and she quickly glanced at the half eaten brownie on his plate while simultaneously finishing her lemon tart. She had a most unsettling way of staring at desserts, particularly any dessert Naru set his hand upon. It was like some sort of spite she carried for his sweet tooth. The minute her gaze turned on him, he stiffened. She was giving him those accursed puppy dog eyes.

But today, Naru would stand his ground; he would damned if he gave up so eas-

"Take it."

He. Was. Weak.

Puppy Dog eyes were something he had very little resistance too. In the past it had been his mother who used them on him, usually to convince him to be polite to whatever annoying guest was visiting their house or something equally mundane. It had been the little power that the Lady Davis had over Oliver. Now that he was oceans away from her, a new master tactician had taken over the job of tormenting him.

"Saya, no more sweets for you," Lin informed her sternly before she could snatch up and devour Naru's hard earned brownie. With a loud groan of disappointment, Saya stopped midway in her motions and sat back down. Unlike Naru, Koujo Lin was impervious to emotional blackmail.

"Can I at least have some milk?" She stared up at him, letting her voice catch in a pitiful sort of a way.

"Yes I suppose." Lin's sigh was a long one.

"In my yellow glass please!" she hollered as he walked away.

"Alright."

Perhaps not emotional blackmail, but he was still wrapped around his daughter's finger. Even if he didn't know it yet.

* * *

Rather than gathering everyone for a case that may or may not exist, Naru chose to keep the investigation entirely to the official members of SPR for the moment. While Mai and Yasu handled things in the office, Naru and Lin made their way to the Meiji Shrine in Shibuya were the latest body had been found. The Shrine was surrounded by an impressively large forest and sprawled over acres. The minute they passed through the Torii gate that marked the shrine's boundary, Lin repressed a shudder. Usually Shinto shrines like this were places of calm and serenity. It was an effect that prayer tended to have on a place, but here an ominous feeling lingered in the air.

"There is no evidence supporting a super natural cause for the deaths," Naru commented, but he had felt it too, "however the lack of blood in the corpses is suspect of something supernatural."

"There is _something_ here," Lin assured him.

"Yes but it is not necessarily related to the death," the young ghost hunter replied softly, looking around through the leaves of the hundreds of trees around them.

"Kazuya Shibuya?" a voice stopped any further speculation. A portly man with a mustache around fifty or so was standing a few feet away, staring at Lin speculatively.

"That would be me and this is my assistant, Lin Koujo," Naru held out his hand. The surprise on the man's face was predictable and after a second, the man, now flustered, shook Naru's hand vigorously, "Detective Matsuyama, I presume."

"Yes," the man nodded, "Thank you for coming today."

"It's no problem," Naru waved him off, "Please tell me more about the body that was found here." The preliminary report was simply a written description of the crime scene and the corpse, with no real details.

"Well quite simply put, the body of a young woman was found near the cherry blossom tree just a few yards from here," Matsuyama pointed to a nondescript tree, one out of many, that was marked with a little bit of a crime scene tape, "Before identification I could not tell you how old the body was, but now we know the victim." Rummaging through his briefcase, the man handed Naru a thicker file than the one he had received from the inspector a few weeks ago, "A young actress who went missing weeks ago. Her picture was in the paper a few nights ago."

Naru didn't have to open the file to know who the victim was. It was a ghost he had seen a mere two days ago at a fancy playhouse with Saya, "Tomoko Lee."

"Yes her body had no blood and after digging a little bit I found nearly fifteen other cases spanning from ten years ago with the bodies found in the exact same way," Matsumoto seemed to be a dedicated man, he seemed to take his job seriously. Seriously enough that he researched a case that was not his, and he put together clues that no one else had. Naru was always inclined to trust dedicated people.

And they hardly had the excuse that this was not a supernatural case.

He had seen the ghost with his own eyes.

"Detective, send us the files related to all the victims and we will look into this matter," Naru shook the man's hand.

Matsuyama looked nothing short of relieved, "Thank you." With a nod at Lin, he walked away, his shoulders looking a little less burdened.

"Fifteen deaths all around parks and shrines in Tokyo plus the ghosts and spirits of the victims possibly haunting various vicinities around the city." It was not a complaint, no Lin did not complain, it was just an admission of the incredible work load they had all just signed on for. There were dozens of places that needed to be checked, and possibly several exorcisms that needed to be conducted. Not to mention that there was a killer out there with the ability to drain a body of every last drop of blood.

This would be no simple matter.

"It's time to call everyone."

"Yes it is."

TO BE CONTINUED

* * *

Shoutouts: JingleBelleRock, Addy, SapphireXRosesXFan, anonymous OO and Wenzel4542. Let be honest Wenzel4542, you definitely brought my attention back to this fic and actually made me think about it and come up with something not quite so suckish.

OH MY GOD DON'T THROW THAT PITCHFORK AT ME!

Jokes.

Firstly, I am incredibly sorry for the loooong hiatus that this story decided to take. Well alright, I sort of made it take a hiatus. It was a lot of things compacted but basically I lost all muse. I had no idea what to make the second case about or anything. But I finally have something that I think if good. Hopefully.

So if theres anyone out there, please rate/review/rant/yell/criticize. I deserve your hate and scrutiny.

VeilsofSleep

PS-my name also changed. it used to Guesswho245


	10. Chapter 10

**Case 2, Chapter 2:**

"Hello?" Naru answered the phone as he always did.

"Noll my boy!"

"Hello Dad." Naru paused and glanced at the clock. It was far too late in Oxford; his parents should have been asleep long ago, "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, yes, its fine," his dad replied jovially enough, "Something's come up in your neck of the woods son."

"Yes, I am already handling the case to do with the bodies found in parks," Naru replied confidently.

"No, no that," his father paused for a second, "It seems Madoko had found someone with...shall we say interesting skills."

"And?" Naru considered Madoko a very competent human being who he had to admit was an excellent teacher and mentor. Even if she was somewhat odd. Any wayward student with talent would flourish under her careful care, so Naru could hardly understand why his father was telling him about it.

"Well, I think your business could benefit is all," Mr. Davis replied carefully, "The boy's around your age, Madoko should be in contact soon. I just wanted to give you a heads up, son."

"But I-"

"One can never have too many allies, Noll," his father replied boisterously, "Anywho, take care son. Hopefully we'll see you soon!"

"Dad, wait-"

...

"Dad?"

His father was a ridiculous man.

Still though, Naru missed him. He missed home.

* * *

After nearly an hour of discussion, Mai was still waiting for someone, _anyone_, to mention that one detail that they all seemed to be avoiding. Seriously, she could not be the only one thinking what she was currently thinking.

"So we have bodies _without_ blood?" Mai once again tried to nudge the conversation towards her current thoughts.

"Yes Mai, you've mentioned that a few times," Naru looked annoyed, because he too knew exactly what she was thinking and had been trying to avoid having the conversation that would surely follow. Or at least he thought he knew what Mai was thinking.

"You know what, fine, I'll say it." Mai cleared her throat emphatically while everyone waited for her input, "Vampires."

...

"And here I gave you an iota of respect and thought that maybe you were concerned that this would turn out like the Urado case instead of something as silly as blood sucking immortals," Naru pinched the bridge of his noise. Admittedly he was impressed that even after all these months, he still could not read all of Mai's reactions perfectly. Even if those reactions were of a particularly odious nature.

In truth the thought that this might be turn out to be like that monster had not even occurred to Mai, "Well _of course_, that too!"

"Well have you ever seen a vampire in any of your investigations?" Masako asked looking as curious as Mai. It seemed this particular topic was on her mind as well. What it was about this particular brand of supernatural lunacy, Naru would never understand, but both teenage girls of the team had vampires on their mind.

"I can safely say that we have not been faced with anything of the sort," Lin replied derisively.

"Oy vey," Ayako rubbed her forehead, "Teenagers."

"Moving right along," Yasu shook his head. This fascination that young women had with blood sucking pretty boys was odd. Personally he blamed it for his lack of a girlfriend, "Where do you want to start, Naru?"

The case seemed like a massive undertaking. Firstly there was the immediate problem of the site bound spirits, like that young actress, haunting various vicinities around the city. Secondly there was the problem of some sort of killer (supernatural or otherwise) lurking in the streets for the last decade or so. Finally, there was the no blood problem. Surely there were a whole host of supernatural entities that could be responsible, including the would be killer and excluding vampires.

And of course, Yasu remembered the Urado case. Naru had stated before that they were not monster hunters. It seemed far too likely that this case wound end with just that as the culprit.

"I want us split up," Naru explained delicately folding his hands, "I want John to go and exorcise the spirit at the theatre tomorrow. The rest of us will each take a file and investigate the victims."

"Investigate what about the victim?" Ayako asked, flipping through on intriguing file about a young and talented writer who had been killed some five years earlier. His body had been found in a nearby park just like the others. The way she clutched that file, staring at the victim's picture while Naru talked was nothing if not telling, but no one knew how to ask Ayako about it.

"Investigate the death itself, suspects, order of events, anything related to the murder itself," Naru explained, "And if in your investigations you find his ghost is still present upon this planet, you exorcise him."

It sounded so simple, but the file that Ayako was holding was one of a very, very large stack.

"Alright, we'd better get started," Takigawa grabbed a file himself, along with John, Masako, Lin and Naru himself.

"What about me and Yasu?" Mai asked. Yasu had no supernatural powers and Mai's had a mind of their own. And neither of them had enough experience to go off on their own, hunting for killers and ghosts.

"You, along with myself and Lin when we have the time, will be discerning the case a whole," Naru explained, "We need to identify any patterns the killer might have, such as a timeline, or victimology."

"Alright, sounds good," Yasu nodded good naturedly. It seemed like his summer vacation would not be a complete bore this time around.

"What about Saya?" Mai pointed a finger at the darling little child who was currently sitting half asleep and propped up against a footstool. Her yellow car was hanging from the edge of her fingers. The child had persevered greatly today, having thrown not a single tantrum or bid for attention. It seemed that she had been subdued greatly all day.

"What's going on with her today?" Monk asked, glancing at the child carefully.

"She saw some of the crime scene photos," Lin explained with a sigh in his voice. It seemed he still wasn't a hundred percent used to a child snooping through his things yet. Though his desk was strictly off limits, Saya still had a habit of seeing things she should not. This morning it had been a stack of files which had course opened when she dropped them and all those gruesome crime scene snapshots lay before her eyes.

"That's awful," Masako shook her head. The crime scene photos were barely something even she could stomach.

"You've got to kidding." Ayako did not look impressed, "She's not even four yet!"

"I am well aware thank you," the man replied curtly and managed to look dignified despite the scolding he was getting, "I am still looking for an appropriate nanny."

The hunt was proving to be a long and tedious process. Not a single human seemed capable of handling Saya along with all the various things that happened to SPR on a normal basis.

"One more thing, tomorrow evening Madoko will be stopping by with a...project of hers," Naru exchanged a glance with Lin. It seemed neither man was happy with this, but it was Madoko and they did not get a choice when it came to her, "In any case if we could regroup around six tomorrow evening that would be good."

"Alright, meeting adjourned!" Mai stood up, stretching, "Who wants tea?"

There were several groans of appreciation.

Mai was a saint.

* * *

The next morning, brighter and earlier than Ayako would have liked, she was standing in front of an old orphanage. The reason she was standing here was twofold: firstly, the woman the young dead writer listed as next of kin lived here and secondly, lets just say Ayako was a friend of the family.

"Ayako Matsuzaki, aren't you a sight for sore eyes!" a brittle looking woman, who seemed to be nearing an age that must range in the hundreds, stood on the front step and the biggest, warmest smile Ayako had ever seen, "I haven't seen you in years. What can I do for you?"

"Ms. Miya," Ayako smiled back a genuine and beautiful smile that not many got to see, "I'm here about Miszawa."

The way Miya's smile dropped told Ayako that the woman knew exactly what she was talking about, "Why don't you come in?"

"Of course," Ayako nodded and followed the woman down a hall filled with pictures taped up by the children. It looked like the fridge in SPR's office where all of Saya's lovely art usually hung only grander.

"Miszawa died nearly five years ago, didn't he?" Miya opened a door and Ayako found herself standing in a pretty little sunroom. She didn't remember it from her last visit, but it was pleasant none the less. While she took a seat, the old woman located some cookies that her wards had spared and shuffled over with the plate and a glass of juice.

"Yes he did," Ayako nodded gritting her jaw. She didn't think she could stomach the juice or the cookies at the moment.

"I was so...shocked when he died," Miya looked old then, older than Ayako could have imagined, "Like someone had pulled a rug from under my feet."

It had been a shock. To Ayako it had felt like someone had crushed her into two pieces and taken one away with them.

"Yes, I'm just doing a little digging," Ayako decided she was not going to discuss Miszawa's death in anything but a superficial level. For the last five years that had been the rule and she would be damned it she broke it now, "What was he like before he died?"

If the question surprised Miya, she didn't say, "very much like always: troubled."

"Did he seem anymore troubled than usual?" Ayako did not want to make this woman suffer for longer than she had to, but she was torn between Miya's peace and finally getting some answers about the day this man went missing and perhaps what happened to him after.

"Dear, his behaviour was erratic and unstable," Miya explained gently, "True enough, getting his book published helped things, and as much as it pains me to say, Miszawa's death wasn't a shock."

But it had been to her, to Ayako.

"If you really want some information, there's a place he used to go."

"Where?" Ayako was willing to take any lead, however small and insignificant.

"The University's library," Miya explained with a nostalgic smile, "You know better than me how much he loved books."

Despite Ayako's sudden urge to peruse the various volumes in The University of Tokyo's library, she resisted. There was far too much work to be done and the University was straight across town. That would be a trip saved for tomorrow. Instead, she made peace by visiting Miszawa's grave in the hope that she get lucky and find his spirit floating about.

No such luck.

* * *

"Look like the innocent flower; but be the serpent underneath!" the incorporeal woman stood in the finest costume of a medieval crazy wife that the theatre had to offer. Admittedly she was pretty and John could see why this woman had been a favorite on the stage. Here she was, completely see through and he was still slightly frightened of her impression of Lady Macbeth.

"Um, excuse me for asking Ma'am, but are you going to recount the whole play to me?" it was getting late and this was the fifth great work of Shakespeare he was watching. Apparently this woman's greatest desire had been to be the heroine in the playwright's most famous works. Of course John was much too polite to simply exorcise her soul without first upholding her last earthly request.

This led him to his currently predicament.

"Why of course!"

Fantastic.

* * *

It was well into the afternoon when Mai insisted on a break. Since nearly nine in the morning, she and Yasu had been working. Low and behold just as they were about to take a lunch break Naru and Lin stomped in with several more files and fresh ideas. Of course the next four hours were spent brain storming, researching and coming up with next to nothing.

"Alright, so as far as we can tell there is no discernible pattern in the victims themselves," Yasu was looking at files and thoughtfully, "no timeline to the killings-"

"But the bodies were all discovered exactly six months after they died," Mai added before Yasu could continue being a downer.

"Yes, that means very little," Naru replied curtly.

"But it can hardly be a coincidence," Lin studied their hand drawn timeline of events thoughtfully. This was about the point that Mai had insisted upon a break. Firstly for her sanity and secondly for Saya's. All this talk of victims and dates of deaths and dates of body discoveries was not appropriate, so the two girls decided to head down the street for some frozen yogurt before dinner. The snack was only acceptable to Lin because he felt a trite guilty and because yogurt was mostly healthy.

"Alright Saya, you can have two scoops," Mai acquiesced and as she handed over some yen to the store clerk. In minutes they were sitting in the pleasant breeze on a bench outside with their respective yogurts. Once out of the office, Saya seemed far less surly than she had been all day, "Saya are you alright?"

The tiny girl stopped midway in her bite and swallowed slowly so she could properly think of answer, "Papa said that someone bad hurt all those people."

And here it was.

"Yes, someone did," Mai nodded, deciding that truth would probably be the best policy. Probably, "But that is not something you need to worry about Saya."

"B-But, you're gonna catch him?" Saya's eyes were getting glassy now.

"Yes Saya, we're going to try," Mai measured her words carefully. If this really did turn out to be a monster, like Urado, then it was doubtful SPR would be able to do anything at all. It had been pointed out before that monsters were a realm of menace that Naru had no idea about. And that would mean the killings would continue and more people would get hurt.

"Mai, is that you?" a familiar voice ended the conversation and when Mai turned around she spotted Madoko. Standing to next to rather interesting looking person.

"Hi!" Mai quickly waved, "How are you?"

"Stunningly good, thank you," Madoko replied being as boisterous as ever. The woman then caught sight of that child who sat with all to striking features, features that were oddly familiar, "And who might this be?"

Of course Madoko knew about Lin's child, and was also aware that Lin had been telling as few people about her as possible, but still, Madoko planned to pile the Lin family with so much warmth that they would suffocate.

"This is Saya," Mai introduced with a knowing smile, "Saya this Madoko, she's a friend of your papa's and Naru."

"It's nice to meet you," Madoko smiled at the girl and Saya smiled back weakly.

"Hey lady, aren't we goin' to some office?" ah yes, the hoodlum that was standing next to Madako. With hair dyed red and a rumpled demeanor, the boy looked to be in his teenage years, probably a senior in high school on vacation just like her. The difference here was that Mai looked like just another average student. This boy looked like a delinquent, the typical kind that enjoyed getting into fights and generally causing havoc.

"Yes, yes," Madoko brushed him off and the boy flared his nostrils in annoyance at her dismissal, "This is Mai and Saya. Ladies, might I introduce Kenichi Wataru, your new monster hunter."

Mai just stared at Mr. Kenichi Wataru with what was surely the most stupid expression on her face; "You have got to be joking."

"I wish, sweetheart, I really do."

TO BE CONTINUED...

* * *

**SHOUT OUTS:**

Wensel4542- you are very welcome! I hope you like it!

SapphireXRosesXFan- I will always root for MaiXNaru. Don't worry.

Nonny- here's more!

lovenarumai- thanks for you compliments!

JingleBelleRock- I'm super stoked about the new case. Hopefully I'll be able to get it done despite all the other crap in the way!

My apologies friends.

Alright folks, here's the update: I am halfway through midterm cycle. I still have two papers and two assignments to finish in the next to weeks and one remaining midterm in a week. I also have also have several application deadlines coming up. Updates will unfortunately be slow. I am really sorry about this, but I felt I should get it out there. Updates will be incredible show and I feel awful about it.

Anywho, here is another installment.

Veil out.

(PS- I just watched Tumbling (a Jdrama) and I have no qualms in telling you that the protagonist in that show is entirely what inspired Kenichi Wataru.)


End file.
